Castiglion del Bosco, A Rosewood Hotel

In 1345 Pietro Lorenzetti, one of the great Sienese painters, left a fresco in the chapel of San Michele here, and the castle above it was already two centuries old. It is a ruin now. The borgo beneath it has done better, as 42 suites restored by the Ferragamo family, with Chiara Ferragamo travelling Italy for the antiques. The beams have stayed, whitewashed over a four-poster in one room and dark against terracotta in another. Below the borgo an infinity pool runs along a stone terrace, cypresses on one side and the valley falling away on the other. The eleven villas are farmhouses of the 17th and 18th centuries, out in the 5,000 acres, each with two to six bedrooms, a garden and a pool of its own. At Villa Stabbi six butterfly chairs stand in a row along the water's edge, which is as near as the estate comes to a crowd.

Recommended for families who want a farmhouse to themselves, and for couples who have come for the wine. The Rosewood Explorers club takes children from three to eleven, from half past ten until half past six, and of the two heated pools one is for families and the other is not. Golfers have Tom Weiskopf's course, Italy's only private golf club, which makes an exception for hotel guests. Campo del Drago is the fine-dining room, under Matteo Temperini. Montalcino's wine bars and cellars are 23 minutes by car. The suites close from mid-November to late March and the restaurants from early January, but the villas stay open all winter, and so do the golf course and the winery, which has made Brunello since the early 1900s and does not stop for January.