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HERE – INTERSTELLAR Gala Auction 2014
Auction Ends: Jun 16, 2014 12:00 PM EDT

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  • Tuscan Getaway: Picturesque Villa in Tuscany with private pool for up to 13 guests
  • Tuscan Getaway: Picturesque Villa in Tuscany with private pool for up to 13 guests
  • Tuscan Getaway: Picturesque Villa in Tuscany with private pool for up to 13 guests
  • Tuscan Getaway: Picturesque Villa in Tuscany with private pool for up to 13 guests
  • Tuscan Getaway: Picturesque Villa in Tuscany with private pool for up to 13 guests
  • Tuscan Getaway: Picturesque Villa in Tuscany with private pool for up to 13 guests
  • Tuscan Getaway: Picturesque Villa in Tuscany with private pool for up to 13 guests
  • Tuscan Getaway: Picturesque Villa in Tuscany with private pool for up to 13 guests
  • Tuscan Getaway: Picturesque Villa in Tuscany with private pool for up to 13 guests

Tuscan Getaway: Picturesque Villa in Tuscany with private pool for up to 13 guests

Item Number
117
Estimated Value
6000 USD
Sold
5500 USD to Live Event Bidder
Number of Bids
1  -  Bid History

Live Event Item

After the online close, this item went to a Live Event for further bidding. Absentee Bidding offered.

Item Description

Enjoy an Italian vacation to Tuscany at this beautifully restored stone farm house, luminous and cozy with spectacular south western views. This package includes a weeklong stay to La Quercia for you and up to 12 guests.

Nestled amidst old terraces on a high hillside, it is surrounded by wild cherry trees and sheltering oaks, from which the house takes its name. Though it has a commanding perspective on all it surveys, La Pietra
gives the sensation of being utterly imbedded in its landscape, seemingly at one with its multiple views of distant farms, olive groves and undulating hills changing color in the shifting light. French doors and outdoor terraces on three sides of the house make the landscape an integral part of the indoor and outdoor environment of the house, a constant reminder of the Tuscan and Umbrian landscapes made famous by Piero della Francesca and Giotto.

La Pietra was carefully restored in the early nineties using the old materials—stone, terra cotta, and massive chestnut beams—merging gracefully with the spectacular landscape that surrounds it. While recalling an earlier way of life, the house in its current form offers beauty mixed with modern comfort, both as a base for travel to a score of lovely hill towns and a place to relax and recreate.
 
To provide guests with maximum flexibility in their accommodations, the house has been divided into two independent floors, each with country kitchen opening on to terraces for lounging and outdoor dining.
 
On the upper floor, the house has three double bedrooms and two baths. It includes a cook’s delight country kitchen with long oak dining table, fashioned from the antique beams of the original house. The dramatic, high ceilinged living room has a raised hearth open fireplace, suitable for philosophical gazing and culinary pleasures. The upstairs living room leads out to a covered loggia, with some of the best views in central Italy—a place to read, to eat, to sip wine, and to watch the weather and light change throughout the day.
 
The ground floor consists of a second country kitchen (ideal for summer cooking), a combination living room/master bedroom suite with open fireplace, two additional double bedrooms and two bathrooms.
 
Outdoor terraces on three sides expand the living space of the house, providing different vantage points from which to enjoy the view. Close-in herb gardens make cooking at home a special experience.
 
Like all of the Altabella houses, La Pietra was for centuries the dwelling of tenant farmers who worked the lands of the local castle, an outlying Medici aligned fortress, whose origins date back to the 9th century. Like the castle, the house was constructed over a period of several centuries, and probably served both as a military surveillance tower and an agrarian house for the peasants and their animals. Standing on the loggia of La Pietra, with its commanding south western views towards the once fortified hill town of Preggio, one can imagine the role the house may have played in the integrated defense system that grew up around the castle, standing guard on the confines of Tuscany and the Papal States. Today, the house retains the outlines of its rugged history in a landscape largely unchanged since medieval times.
 
Summary of features:
  • Accommodation: 6 double bedrooms / 4 baths (sleeps 13)
  • Spacious fully equipped country kitchens with modern appliances, including dishwasher, on both floors
  • Broadband internet access is available and a computer is provided on the upper floor for guest use (small fee for unlimited use)
  • Guests can also connect to the internet via their own laptop
  • Central heating and washer and dryer on each floor
  • Double-glazed windows and screens for year round use and comfort
  • Two raised-hearth stone fireplaces
  • Furnished with antiques and pieces built by local craftsmen using old designs
  • Attractive linens and towels
  • Good mattresses and reading lights
  • Terraces and gardens, suitable for outdoor dining
  • Personalized Italian cooking lessons and/or serving at home, available upon request
  • Elegant 18 meter by 7 meter infinity swimming pool 

Item Special Note

Subject to availability. Does not include airfare or ground transportation. Must be used within 3 years of winning bid. Visit Altabella Properties for more information: http://www.altabella.com/la_pietra