Antico Casale Bergamini

You’re in Valpolicella country, just beyond Verona, where clusters of houses alternate with tilled terraces glowing with vines. Here lies the Bergaminis’ enormous 17th-century farmhouse with a dapper outdoor pool. Set around a large garden, outbuildings that date to the 17th-century have been transformed into light, bright, immaculate guest suites with classic furnishings and dashing colours. Take your pick from first-floor rooms (one with steps to its own little garden) endowed with elegant bedsteads, gleaming tiled floors, two sets of curtains (and handy mini fridges) and second-floor suites with bedrooms under the eaves and hidden mini kitchens. All have super bathrooms and showers with shower benches, and there’s a very lovely bedroom on the ground floor. In the big, beamy breakfast room, gentle young Silvia spoils you with lavish breakfasts and pies bursting with home-grown fruit… don’t miss the garden’s plums, the plumpest you’ll ever see! Tempting to stay but there’s Verona to discover, vineyards galore (the family is soon to get their own label), Lake Garda close by and restaurants a short drive.