This medieval Italian castle is now a luxury hotel

Virgin Radio

28 Sep 2021, 13:23

Visitors can now book a deluxe holiday in the millennium-old castle.

This May a beautiful new luxury hotel experience opened in the Tuscany region in Italy. The hotel, a renovated ancient castle, is on the prestigious Reschio estate, already home to a series of upscale holiday villas. 

The gorgeous medieval castle dates back to 1050, nearly an entire millennium. Its ancient, crumbling exterior gives way to a gorgeous modern interior, seamlessly blending the rustic Italian countryside aesthetic with all the most up to date amenities. 

The estate’s owners, the aristocratic Bolza family, pride themselves on the character and the sustainability of the hotel. Much of the food is grown on site, including pasta made from flour harvested and milled on site and eggs laid by the hotel’s own chickens. Furniture is designed by local artisans, and the villas are all converted farmhouses from days past. 

Much of the renovation work is designed by Benedikt Bolza, the current manager of the estate. Before the castle became a hotel, Benedikt lived there with his wife and raised his five children in the sprawling ancient structure. Today they live in one of the smaller villas on the estate, as do his parents, the original owners of the land. 

Vogue journalist Chloe Schama visited the hotel this summer, and described the perfect union of luxury and rustic energy that the hotel embodies. 

She writes: “The main entry to the castle itself is through a mud room-cum-flower-arranging-station, perhaps the most elegant residence for Wellington boots ever constructed, the floor littered with Queen Anne’s lace and sunflower petals. But there is surprising grandeur in the architecture as well, most notably a wrought-iron, greenhouse structure that encloses a portion of the castle courtyard and is filled with frothy palms.”

She continues, “In what used to be the wine cellar and is now “The Bathhouse” – the Castello’s spa – you can bathe in a tub full of foraged flowers, lounge like a Roman in a subterranean tepidarium (a more temperate version of a sauna) or, as I did later that day, submit yourself to a gentle dry brush with a copper-bristle paddle against an aural backdrop of what sounds like distant vespers. Imposing Andalusian horses are gathered in the stables, ready for a ride, while manicured tennis courts are perched above the elegant oval swimming pool.”

Stays at the Castello di Reschio start at a steep €890 a night, which is about £767. Nine of the estate’s villas are also available to rent for bigger groups, as the small and exclusive hotel hosts only 36 rooms.