An exemplification of all that is great about Tuscany, and in fact, Italy. Meet Borgo Santo Pietro, the lovechild of Claus and Jeanette Thottrup, who have made this a personal quest to create the perfect hotel, somewhere they want to be, and as you’ll find out, somewhere we all want to be.
An elegant estate with a noble history, set on 13 acres of glorious gardens within a grand 200 acres. More than 15 years later, Borgo has grown into a flourishing establishment with a Michelin-starred restaurant, bespoke cooking school, bio dynamic culinary gardens, a working farm, native wood land and fields of vineyards rolling out to the horizon.
Take a Tuscan turn around July’s Spa of the Month.
SHOP THE ESSENTIALS
The Lowdown
This hotel should carry a warning: you’ll dread checking out.
In a region 45 minutes’ drive south-west of Siena, it’s an entirely new area to discover and so full of activity, you could wander for hours without ever leaving the property. What started as a derelict 13th Century Tuscan villa to be recreated into a summer home, became a permanent development project, turning it into a Relais & Châteaux luxury hotel.
Claus drew and engineered every additional building, while Jeanette focused on the design of the gardens. At present, the estate supplies the hotel with all the vegetables, bread, honey, ricotta, pecorino, chicken, lamb and pork its guests can eat, as well as ingredients and herbs for it’s own skincare line. The vineyards are in the making, producing up 70,000 bottles a year, though it may be a few years before its ready to drink.
Borgo features a cookery school, pizza-making lessons, cheese-making demonstrations, truffle hunting, a floristry school, a painting school, all with resident experts, so I reiterate, you may never want to check out.
Farm-to-table, farm-to-skincare, farm-to-massage – the philosophy runs through the entire property.
THE VIBE
Bedrooms are all individually designed, some with free standing bathtubs, fireplaces, and all supported with massive chestnut beams and travertine stone floors. The best suites feature private outdoor swimming pools (see below).
Take a quintessential ride around the Tuscan landscape with one of the estate’s vespas or visit their onsite skincare laboratory, with its own natural product line, Seed to Skin. (Read more later).
The Trattoria Sull’Albero restaurant is set in a “tree house”, assembled around the trunk of a giant oak, serving Tuscan favourites and selection of stellar wines. Giovanni DiGiorgio creates menus from local produce made onsite at Meo Modo, Borgo Santo Pietro’s Michelin-starred restaurant.
If you’re not eating, you’re biking around, if you’re not biking around, you’re spa’ing.
And that leads us right to the Spa. The Borgo spa is a whole Tuscan farmhouse in the garden, exposed stone walls with a warm fireplace burning in the elegant reception area. Farm-to-massage treatments using Jeanette’s own Seed to Skin product line.
THE SIGNATURE
Every ritual is a total five sense immersion of health and well-being for the mind, the body and the spirit. If you had any trouble getting into the “relaxing zone”, remember that the spa is ideally located near an ancient healing site used centuries ago by the Franciscan monks.
Try Borgo’s Seed to Skin ‘Nature’s Bounty’ – a head-to-toe, mind and body getaway, including body scrub, massage and restorative facial using their own product line, made in their onsite laboratory. Disappear into the clouds for 120 minutes (€280) of bliss.
THE BEAUTY KIT
Seed to Skin is convincing enough to ditch the rest. Now available in Liberty London and Net-a-Porter worldwide, you won’t have any problems getting it. Although a trip back to Borgo to get your supply doesn’t seem like such a chore. The products you won’t be able to live without? The Alchemist Super Active Serum Spray and The Cure Molecular Cell Regeneration Complex.
CF SPA TIP
While the Spa treatment rooms indoors are beautiful, try treatments al-fresco in the outdoor canopied therapy suite, where you can enjoy the intoxicating perfumes of jasmine, honeysuckle and climbing roses. Who doesn’t love being serenaded by birdsong? Check back in 2020 for the larger Spa opening, set to open year round.
NEED TO KNOW
Entry-level double rooms start from €535 (£470). The hotel is currently closed from November to March. Breakfast is included and unmissable. Complimentary Wi-Fi.
Address: Località Palazzetto, 110, 53012 Palazzetto SI, Italy
Tel: +39 0577 751222 (Spa: +44 (0) 1628 891881)
To visit Borgo Santo Pietro, visit https://borgosantopietro.com/hotel/
To read more Spa reviews, take a look at our favourites here
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