Down the track to a winery in a valley where farming and nature work in harmony and the comforts are 21st century. There’s a farmhouse, a barn-restaurant, a biodynamic winery and 12 bedrooms with a communal sitting room above. With a host of chickens, plenty of cats and kittens, and staff chatting and laughing in the kitchens, it’s impossible not to unwind. Bedrooms, well-equipped with TVs, air con and double glazing, are furnished in spare modern style – good beds, chunky ceilings, a few antiques – and a lawn runs down to the reed-fringed bio lake. Take a dive into its eco-fresh waters – no better start to the day! Best of all is the food, regional, seasonal, organic, so good that food-and-wine tours book in. Young friendly staff serve a monthly-changing menu of five set plates: generous, delicious and you cannot say no. Breakfasts are communal, served in a charming room in the old farmhouse; in summer, you take to the terraces and gorge on the views. Hiking and biking is what it’s about in the Parco Regionale dell’ Abbazia di Monteglio, and if you stay here, the bikes are thrown in.
Apart from the beautiful setting, the absolutely amazing food and the delicious 17 varieties of biodynamic wines (I tasted 7 of them and took 4 back with me!), what impressed me most was the good humour, smiles and genuine interest for me to feel at home that I received from every single one of the staff I met during my stay. This is a place I will return to for sure.