Posts Tagged ‘hotels’
Wine Travel Guides comes to Tuscany: a review
If you’re an enthusiastic wine-tourist, or would like to be, you need to meet Wine Travel Guides. The venture was launched in 2007 to offer wine lovers the essential information for planning a private wine tour. There are now 50 regularly updated micro-region guides to download or view online, including 2 new ones on Tuscany. It’s a well-timed expansion: the region was recognised this month for excellence in wine tourism.
An annual subscription offering unlimited access to all 50 guides is £49, or download a single guide for £7.50.
The two Tuscany mini-guides are packed with just the sort of detailed wine tourism information likely to be missing from a mainstream guidebook. Author Michèle Shah has an impressive pedigree in Italian wine, and shows it off with plenty of winemaking and DOC(G) knowledge. There’s just the right portion of technical nuggets for a proper enthusiast. Read the rest of this entry »
Florence and Umbria accommodation openings
Right about now, with the northern hemisphere shivering, is a fine time to be making accommodation plans for a Tuscany trip in 2009. So, you might be interested to hear that a few new options have appeared just in time.
The brand-new, luxurious Town House Palazzo Vecchietti opened its doors in January, in a spot handy for the cafes of Piazza della Repubblica or the designer shops of Via de’ Tornabuoni. Giambologna renovated the palazzo in the 1580s; prices are as you’d expect for an inn with such a pedigree. (UPDATE: There’s more on the Vecchietti here.)
Seriously upscale visitors to Florence have another reason to be cheerful: the frescoed Renaissance Palazzo della Gherardesca has morphed into the Four Seasons Firenze after a lengthy restoration. It’s on Borgo Pinti, just a little outside the heart of the action.
For a quieter hotel experience, the Palazzo Seneca in Norcia (Umbria) has had a boutique-style revamp and now offers a wellness spa and fine local cuisine. Norcia, the birthplace of St. Benedict, is home to Umbria’s famous black truffle, and sits on the edge of the Monti Sibillini national park.
Finally, if you’re looking for a villa in Tuscany and have a decent budget to play with, the Conde Nast Traveler blog has some sound advice for places to begin your research online. Budget travellers, especially anyone banking in sterling, might want to re-check my Budget Guide to Tuscany that The Times ran last summer. You’ll find some fine accommodation alternatives.
When it comes to Tuscan lodging, you don’t have to be rich to book round here, but it sure helps.
