Elegant villa with pool and tennis overlooking the Orcia valley near Pienza

OVERVIEW Casa di Donata

Donata’s house offers all the special charm, character and seclusion of a private home and garden, with the additional advantage of having the restaurant, tennis, playground and other children’s activities within easy reach.

At the far corner of Chiarentana is the house lived in by Donata, one of the two Origo sisters. When, in the early eighties, Donata began to renovate the square fortified farmhouse for many centuries occupied by 7 peasant families, an open informal garden was designed to blend into the surrounding countryside, and rambling roses, shrubs and bulbs planted to soften the stone-flagged courtyard shaded by a large linden tree.

Recently Donata’s house has become available for rent. The house is on two levels with windows facing south over the Val d’Orcia, west beyond the horse paddocks to the sunset beyond the distant hills, and over the courtyard. From the front door steps lead down the lower garden level and an open living space with rattan sofas and armchairs and a with a spectacular view over the valley and beyond to the Monte Amiata. Large clumps of rosemary, lavender and thyme rise from the open lawn with areas where walnut, apricot, cherry, plum, quince and fig trees provide shade and seclusion. There is a rectangular swimming pool (15X5m), also looking out towards the view but tucked away where bathers cannot be seen, with a shower and changing room next door.

Doors from the courtyard and the main door on the west side lead into the ground floor. There is an entrance hall, a cloak room for guests, a library/study, a large sunny living room with windows looking out both ways over the courtyard and the valley, with a pretty fireplace with antique Neapolitan tiles. The dining room is a beautiful tiled kitchen with a raised fireplace, a large table extendable to 14 places, and a smaller kitchen next door where the cooking is actually done. Next to the dining room is a comfortable and informal living/playroom with satellite TV and an entire book-case with children’s books, some dating back to Donata’s childhood. French doors lead to a wisteria and rose-shaded pergola. This becomes the main dining space in summer, in the shade at lunch time and looking out towards the sunset in the evening. A wood oven in front of the pergola can be used to cook pizza and succulent roast meat. A guest room with twin queen-size beds and en suite bathroom is also on this floor.

A flight of stairs leads up to the first floor, where a suite with a room with a large double bed and another with twin beds sharing a bathroom and a smaller washroom with basin and toilet is ideal for a family. Two other large rooms with double beds, each with en suite bathroom are also on this floor. One is called the “African” room for its paintings and sculptures from Zimbabwe, the other the “yellow” room for its shades of wash on the walls, curtains and bedspread, carpets from Morocco, and sunny exposure. Both rooms look south over the valley. Antique family furniture, paintings, and objects can be found in all rooms in the house.

From 8.30 to 2.30 the services of a maid/cook who has been working for Donata for many years are included. She will prepare breakfast and lunches with fresh products from the vegetable garden and orchard, and leave dinner to be heated up on request. S/he can also be available to cook and serve evening meals at an additional cost.

Amenities and services

Floorplan of the villa

ESTATE: Chiarentana

The Chiarentana estate extends over 200 hectares in what is probably the most beautiful nook of the famous Val d’Orcia, a Unesco World Heritage site since 2002.
Chiarentana is the sister estate of the famous La Foce estate, legacy of the author Iris Origo and her husband Antonio.
This is a fascinating story: When Iris and Antonio Origo came to the Val d’Orcia, Chiarentana was one of the many farms on the La Foce estate, in fact certainly the largest, with over seven families and their livestock living around the large square building with a central courtyard.

Its history goes back to the early Middle Ages, when it was one of the many small castles where pilgrims would stop on their way to Rome on the via Francigena. Emperor Otto I is said to have stopped here himself on his way to visit the Pope in the second half of the10th century.
During the 14th century Chiarentana became one of the first Communes, with its own statute, complete with a set of laws and sanctions. Thereafter the fortunes of Chiarentana followed those of its neighbors – a downhill story of war and devastation, poverty and degradation.

In 1924 when the Origos bought the property it was in conditions of severe destitution. Through their lifelong and passionate joint efforts they succeeded in bringing progress and social change to this poverty-ridden land, leading to a miraculous transformation of the conditions of the people living on it. La Foce became a bustling prosperous farm, reforestation and water management prevented the erosion which had ravaged the land for centuries, farmland was reclaimed from the expanses of clay hillocks, dams were built for irrigation purposes, roads were made, schools annihilated the prevailing illiteracy, basic health services were provided to all. La Foce was considered a model estate, and as such was spared the land reform that broke up most large properties in the 50s. Upon their death La Foce was divided into two properties by the Origo daughters: the Chiarentana estate is run by their second daughter Donata.

The Chiarentana estate is made up of the main building and several free standing farms. In the main building 6 apartments surround a paved courtyard shaded by an old linden tree. There is a large garden with secluded corners for each apartment, a pool, a tennis court and a children’s playground.
Delicious freshly cooked meals are served on 2 evenings of the week, indoors during the colder months, in the candle-lit courtyard in summer. Oil-tasting dinners with specially paired recipes are served once a week. 3 freestanding farms which offer charm as well as comfort and a private pool can also be rented.

Chiarentana has focused on the production of the highest quality olive oil; olive groves with particular varieties of olive trees surround the main Chiarentana building, while extensive wheat and hay fields cover the rolling hills leading down to the bottom of the valley. In the midst of these hills are some of the few remaining wild areas of the “crete senesi”, the clay hills depicted in the Sienese paintings from the 13th and 14th centuries. These areas are now the home to wild boar, roebuck, porcupines and hares, as well as rare forms of orchids, dog-roses, prickly pear and broom.

ACTIVITIES

• After having bought the estate of La Foce in 1924, Antonio and Iris Origo commissioned the English architect Cecil Ross Pinsent, who had previously done extensive work on Bernard Berenson’s Villa I Tatti in Florence, to restructure the main buildings and create a large garden. The latter was conceived to enhance the Renaissance house, built in 1498 as an inn for the travellers to Rome on the Via Francigena.The garden is open to the public on Wednesday afternoon.
• Montalcino is beautifully situated on a hill inhabited since Etruscan times, swathed in vineyards and olive groves. It is a quiet, affluent, attractive town with pretty buildings and flower-filled squares, and many shops selling the Brunello di Montalcino.
• Pienza, the unfinished “utopian” city, was commissioned by Pope Pius II in 1459. In just three years the cathedral, the papal and bishop’s palaces and the central part of the town were completed, but the extensive project ended abruptly when Pius died only two years after the consacration of the cathedral.
• The Val d’Orcia is a wide valley south of Siena through which the old Via Francigena (the chief route linking Rome with the north) used to lead, passing castles and fortified towns, some of them dating back as far as the eighth century. In San Quirico make sure you see the Horti Leonini, an early Renaissance garden, as well as the western door in the city wall and the Collegiata (main church).
• Florence et Rome can be reached by train in one and a half hours from the nearby station Chiusi.
• Monte Oliveto Maggiore. This abbey was founded by three Sienese noblemen who left the city to live a life dedicated to prayer, religion, etc. and who founded the Olivetan order – an off-shoot of the Benedictines. The most important thing to see at this still active and working Monastery is the cycle of frescoes that decorate the monumental cloister.  They describe the live of Saint Benedict and were painted by Signorelli and Sodoma.  There are also some beautiful marquetry stalls in the church itself.  It is a very magical and serene place set in the midst of exceptionally beautiful countryside.
  It is home to a dozen monks who specialize in restoring old books, and make wine, honey and olive oil.
• Sant’Anna in Camprena is a rambling monastery on the road between Pienza and San Quirico d’Orcia. A very romantic setting which served as location for the film The English Patient. In the refectory there is a fresco by the renaissance painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, known as Il Sodoma.
• Sant’Antimo is surely one of the loveliest Romanesque buildings in all of Italy. It is hard to imagine a more sympathetic combination of architectural grace and natural setting. Originally founded by Charlemagne in 800, the abbey was once home to a prominent Benedictine community. Creamy stone bricks, luminous Volterran alabaster, playful carvings and frescoes of animals give it a peculiarly sunny air. A group of French Cistercian monks now runs the abbey, celebrating Mass with Gregorian chants several times a day.
• Tuscany is famous for its hot springs, belonging to a geothermical system that more or less encircles Monte Amiata, the most spectacular being Saturnia in the south west of the region. Close to La Foce is Bagno Vignoni which has been popular since Etruscan times. St Catherine of Siena is said to have appreciated its therapeutic qualities, as is Lorenzo the Magnificent, whose family built the splendid arcaded pool – a kind of flooded, bubbling piazza, famously used by Tarkovsky for some of the more surreal passages of his film Nostalgia. Bagni San Filippo may go into the books as the world’s smallest thermal spa – a telephone booth, a few old houses, an outdoor spring in the middle of the woods with glistening limestone formations, and one small hotel with a public pool.
• Fashion addicts can splurge out at the famous Prada factory outlet, which lies on to road to Florence.

RATES

GUEST REVIEWS, Casa di Donata, Chiarentana

LOCATION

Chiarentana lies south of Siena, overlooking the wide and open Orcia valley, close to Montalcino, Montepulciano and Pienza. The nearest village lies at a distance of 7 km.