Castiglion del Bosco, A Rosewood Hotel

This place is a big deal. There aren’t a lot of rooms, but in every other way it’s a big deal none the less. Basically, the intimate hotel portion of Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco is just the tip of the bucolic iceberg — in total, more than 5,000 acres of intact, 900-year-old agricultural estate property provide a spectacular backdrop. Wine is actively produced here and much of the property is comprised of preserved lands for grape growing or forests. The rest has been sensitively formed into a community of sandstone villas, with the original estate buildings at its heart. The idea is for guests to immerse themselves in the landscape, functions and pace of Tuscany, wander the massive property as if it’s the year 1552 and the estate belongs only to them. But in terms of Tuscan hotel luxury, it's also very much in the here and now, with two restaurants — one of them MICHELIN-Starred — as well as an organic kitchen garden, a cooking school, a fine spa and plentiful sport and fitness facilities. The suites are large, ranging from 580 to nearly 2,000 square feet. However, many feature giant terraces that are sometimes larger than the suite itself, stretching the experience luxuriously into the rolling landscape. The décor is traditional with the rustic, Tuscan color palette one expects, un-fussy wooden or wrought iron furnishings, and thick draperies to blow in the breeze. But to reiterate, as intoxicatingly comfortable as the suites may be, the experience is the estate in its ancient totality, to breathe and live slowly in the countryside that makes Tuscany Tuscany. And should the 5,000 acres of Tuscan countryside within the bounds of the estate prove insufficient, the villages and vineyards of the Val d’Orcia lie just beyond, while Siena is less than an hour’s drive away.