Poggio ai Pini is set in a panoramic spot, ideal for those looking for peace and tranquillity, yet within few kilometers from the wanders of Siena. It consists of four beautiful apartments obtained from the careful restoration of the farm buildings and annexes belonging to a 17th Century, a Villa built and still occupied by an ancient noble Siennese family, theyare surrounded by 20 hectares of olive groves, fields and woodlands, immersed in nature. Siena offers all shops and facilities and can be easily reached both by bus and on foot. Access to the apartments is by 1 km of private road that leads directly to the private parking area of the apartments. 

The Villa is totally independent of the apartments and offers a 6.5 x 14 meter swimming pool at the margin of its formal garden that guests can use from 11 am to 9 pm daily. Access to the pool is by way of an independent gate and the pool area offers a spectacular view of Siena. There is a large furnished terrace and furnished lawns in front of the apartments. The apartments offer TV with satellite dish and independent central gas heating. Gas is payable on consumption during heating season. Beautifully furnished with several important antique pieces in each, the apartments were restored using acoustic absorption materials to ensure complete privacy and quiet. Whitewashed walls and woodbeamed ceilings are present throughout the structure.  

BALLATOIO
2/4 Persons 55 SQM

Kitchen corner - living/dining room with 2 single sofa beds
- 1 double bedroom - 1 bathroom
Access is in common with Oliviera from an external flight of stairs leading to a small landing and culminating in a spacious furnished terrace that is private to Ballatoio and that runs the entire external length of the apartment.

Private entrance is into a hallway with door on the right to the spacious living/dining room with kitchen corner that is complete with gas range, small fitted electric oven, fridge with freezer and skylight.

Through the living room is the door to the double bedroom and to the complete bathroom with shower stall, washingmachine and vent (no window). 

The views are really extraordinary. Not often you sit in relax by the pool and view Siena so close! It is a really beautiful position, surrounded by olive groves and lemon trees, which are jealously looked after by the owner himself.

The apartment comprises 1 bedrooms in total; 1 double, 1 of the bedrooms with en-suite facilities. . This gives room for up to 2 people. Bed linen and towels are provided for your use.

The apartment has 1 bathrooms and 1 WCs for your party's use. Central heating keeps you snug and warm.

The apartment has television.

There is room for 2 in the living room and 2 in the dining room. To prepare food you will find a cooker, an oven, a fridge, a freezer, a kettle. You will also find a dish washer, a washing machine. The owner has also provided cutlery, crockery, glassware.

Smoking is allowed in this apartment.

Pets are not welcome 

Not suitable for wheelchairs 

The apartment is in a very quiet area. It has access to a shared north facing swimming pool, a south facing garden, a south facing patio area, a south facing balcony, panoramic views, interesting views, a barbeque.

The apartment is right beside swimming, walking.

Close to the apartment you will find flying, cycling, mountain biking, horse riding, tennis, a sports center, historic sites, a museum, a theatre/cinema, shopping areas, a restaurant, a food shop.

Within easy reach of the apartment you will find a beach, sailing, water skiing, boat hire, wind surfing, fishing.

Wine tasting - visits of the wineries

The apartment is....

250 km from Rome airport.
200 km from Pisa.
60 min from Florence.
10 min from Ampugnano .

Any day of the week.

Any day of the week.

3 PM

10 AM

Review submitted by non-Villarenters customer: Feast your eyes

In the hillside villages around Siena food is king, as Gwyn Topham discovered on a gastronomic tour that served up more than he bargained for

Tuesday April 29, 2003

The pool at Poggio Ai Pini, Siena
The pool at Poggio Ai Pini is the perfect place to unwind after a long lunch.


It would be nice to pretend that food wasn't a crucial factor in choosing my holidays, but I like to eat, and a growling stomach can turn paradise sour very quickly. Where Greece was an interminable feta salad and Spain a vegetarian's nightmare, Italy looked a sure bet for a hearty meal for all tastes. Sometimes, though, you can push things a bit far.

When we headed out one balmy evening to drive south from our base, a converted farmhouse just outside Siena, we had little idea what was in store. In the oddly barren, almost lunar landscape on the road to Asciano - vastly different from the classic green Tuscan hills of Chianti - we stumbled on La Pievina, a homely roadside restaurant with chickens running in the grounds and chintzy dolls lining the walls.

The coming meal would inspire both delight and panic. When the hostess - a woman of a certain age for whom the term waitress wouldn't do justice - inquired whether we wanted "carne, pesce o vegetariano" it was the last decision we were given the chance to make.

In hindsight, eating the home-baked bread was a mistake. Wine was placed on the table without even needing to ask. Within minutes my first course, a fish-topped bruscetta, had arrived. It was followed by a mixed seafood salad; a plate of clams; next, grilled sardine; a bowl of winkles; dried cod with roe; homemade fishcakes; an anchovy and olive plate; a bowl of marinated mussels; a fish broth with egg and spinach; and then mussels with mozzarella.

By this point I was already futilely hiding food under my cutlery to ease my straining stomach. "Fine, gli antipasti! Starters over!" trilled our hostess. Now it was time, she informed me, to try her seafood risotto (what would pass for an excellent paella in Spain).

I was a beaten man. Ravioli came, relentless. And only then did we come to the main course. "Piccolo, just a little," I pleaded, before being served a whole grilled fish accompanied by potatoes and king prawns. "Piccolo?" I enquired, in my best Italian. "Si, piccolo," the waitress replied, pointing to another table where the diners' fish was accompanied by a branch hung with king prawns.

We only had a couple of desserts, although we were offered six. All this, with wine, water, grappa, limoncello, dessert wine, a herbal digestif and coffee and biscuits, came to just 75 euros for the two of us. My vegetarian girlfriend was admittedly catered for a little less splendidly, at a mere 11 courses, but strangely wasn't complaining.

I'd like to report that, aside from this feast, we led an ascetic lifestyle, but it wouldn't be strictly true. If meals out were too cheap to spurn, self-catering brought more temptation. One 50-euro supermarket expedition kept us pretty much sustained for the week with the sort of foods that would mean a pricey deli splurge at home: mozzarella, pecorino, parma ham, olive oil, bunches of fresh basil. Add a couple of cheap Chiantis and you can want little more than to head back to base and play at being Italian gourmets.

Our accommodation was the peaceful Poggio Ai Pini, a set of six semi-rustic apartments built around a 17th-century villa overlooking Siena. There was enough garden furniture to be able to eat outside - and though what was advertised as a private terrace was shared with another couple from New York, this turned out to be a pleasantly social experience rather than the bitter dogfight which might have resulted with less amenable neighbours.

The villa was just about walkable from town, at least on the way back down the steep hills, although the stretch of bleak roundabouts outside the city walls meant it wasn't an appealing stroll at night. With a hire car, it was a quick journey in and out, armed as we were with world's most illegible map from Poggio's resident manager.

For outings, your own car is really something of an essential unless you're planning on sticking to the cities, which might not be a great idea in summer (our New Yorkers from Poggio took a train to Florence one day and came back ashen). Driving means hills, views and villages become accessible on a whim; the downside is the minor heartbreak of not being able to get lashed on best cheap Chianti, especially when passing the numerous vineyards which sell direct and offer tastings.

Not all routes are as attractive as you might imagine. We drove from Pisa airport (a hell hole, incidentally, for departing passengers) to Siena via the country roads from Empoli onwards. On the map, passing many villages denoted of guidebook interest, this looked a winner, but it's a surprisingly industrial area in parts.

East from Siena, though, there are just too many beautiful towns and villages even within a short drive to see them all. The spectacularly skylined San Gimignano is perhaps best seen from a distance; a jutting, angular hilltop silhouette. Close up, this Renaissance Manhattan had the feel of a crowded tourist trap, all car parks and shops selling what our new neighbour Clem called tchotchke ("You know, those itsy little bits of little dinky crafty bullshit shit"). Even the gelateria in the main square had a letter from Signor Tony Blair, thanking the proprietor for his crate of ice cream (sent, apparently, in recognition of the prime minister's efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland).

Even in early August, when the crowds are at their peak, it's not impossible to find a magical Tuscan village that feels like you're the first to stumble on it. Barely 12km from San Gimignano is Col Valle d'Elsa, another walled hilltop town with lovely views and medieval cobbled streets. Another evening's drive took us to Radda in Chianti, stuck on a precipice above misty green valleys, with dining rooms perched even higher on upper floors. Driving around Chianti you could barely go wrong for finding picturesque villages, castles and rolling verdant hills: each day we'd compare notes with our neighbours and come up with different destinations.

Siena itself, while never as oppressive as the likes of Florence, can still be extremely busy in August. That said, even a short walk from the main squares can lead you to quieter cafes, while pushing at the less advertised doors, such as that of the Enoteca I Terzi (Via dei Termini 7), can uncover oases of calm in the very centre.

Safely back at the villa, Siena would look unfeasibly tranquil. Having joined the ranks of gullible pizza-hunters on the Campo, we knew all too well that the city was no such thing; but we could soon let ourselves fall into the illusion, slumbering under the shade of the trees beside the terrace pool.

The scene was at its best in the late afternoon when the sun, setting orange, cast long shadows across the olive groves and burnished earth. It would be hard to feel more calm than now: sitting outside, bare feet on the warm tiles, with no noise other than the cicadas and bells ringing from the campanile in the distance.

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