Most of the buildings have already been restored and include, at the moment, 17 beautiful bedrooms and elegant living areas. By completing the renovation of the other farmhouses one could reach a grand total of 26 bedrooms. The property’s 15.3 hectares of land are home to a beautiful Italian garden and olive grove.
The first episode of Dream of Italy starts in the heart of Tuscany – Chianti – with a visit to Castello di Ama to learn how true Chianti Classico wine is produced and see the modern art that makes up the estate. The area is also famous for olive oil and we visit Pornanino to take part in the olive harvest. Nearby, host Kathy McCabe meets the very special cashmere goats that Nora Kravis raises at Chianti Cashmere Farm. Then it is off to Panzano for a wild boar hunt with the La Squadra Chiantigiana and a visit with philosophical butcher Dario Cecchini. At Busatti in Anghiari, we watch 100-year-old looms craft fine fabrics. The episode ends on the captivating coast of Tuscany in Maremma with a stunning ride with the butteri (cowboys).
Even now, the approach to the 1,200-acre property is just as it must have been centuries ago: a long, winding ride through pale, undulating fields, leading to a dignified hilltop retreat. The three-story ivy-wrapped building is ringed by 20-foot obelisk-like cypress trees — a private citadel entered through a wrought-iron gate. Beyond the vista of olive groves, another fortresslike outcropping is visible in the distance: the mottled russet city of Siena, three miles away.
WHEN RENÉ CAOVILLA, the 82-year-old Venetian shoe designer, was first shown the Tuscan villa he bought in 1977, he fell in love with it instantly. He wasn’t only taken with the house, a 15th-century red brick monastery that had undergone a slow transformation into an austere 20-bedroom private home in the 17th century, but the Chianti landscape as well — the whole of classical history evoked in a flash.
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