Setting the navigation system to reach a desired destination... Tuscany, Siena, Colle di Val d'Elsa, Mensanello location... would be like opening a Matrioska, starting from the famous Tuscany, going through the charming Siena of the Palio, passing to the micro area of Colle di Val D'Elsa, the city of Cristallo, and finally ending up in the small farming village named Mensanello... and this is where Villa Sabolini is located.Setting the navigation system to reach a desired destination... Tuscany, Siena, Colle di Val d'Elsa, Mensanello location... would be like opening a Matrioska, starting from the famous Tuscany, going through the charming Siena of the Palio, passing to the microarea of Colle di Val d'Elsa, the city of Cristallo, and finally ending up in the small farming village named Mensanello... and this is where Villa Sabolini is located. Some know it as the home of the Bishop of Mensanello, others know it as the old Archbishop's Seminary, and some pass in front of its walls every day not knowing what lies beyond them. The charming, concealed house leaves you astonished as soon as you see it... As soon as you enter the gate of Villa Sabolini, you are confronted with the beauty of an ancient historic residence from the 15th century, surrounded by an Italian garden with secular trees where just walking makes you breathe in the air and charm of the past. The Villa owes its name to an important family of the Colle Val d'Elsa area, "The Sabolini", the last heir of which, Archpriest Amerigo Sabolini, decided to use the Villa as a retreat residence during his last years. Later, it was the dwelling of the Venturi-Gallerani Family, whose family coat of arms it still bears, and they were the masters until after the Second World War. And it was precisely during that period that the Villa acquired strategic importance for the Italian artistic heritage! Tales say that during the Second World War, some clergymen tried to save works of art from the Nazi plundering by hiding them in the secluded Convents, Villas, Monasteries in the Italian countryside. In 1943, art scholar Frank Stokes convinced the President of the United States of America to gather a group of architects and art experts, enlisting them in the army, with the aim of finding, around the invaded European countries, all the works of art stolen by Adolf Hitler. This group of soldier-art experts was named "The Monuments Men". In the summer of 1944, Frank Stokes was touring the Tuscan countryside, searching for one of the most famous pieces for our cultural heritage and... it was when he arrived in the small village of Mensanello, in the Villa once called the Bishop's Villa that, meticulously stowed away inside a wooden crate, he found the beautiful piece of “Maestà di Duccio Boninsegna”, transported from the Museum of the Opera of Siena to Villa Sabolini to hide and protect it from enemy plundering. After the Second World War, Mrs. Flavia, the last of the Venturi-Gallerani dynasty left, at her death not having any children, everything to the Diocese of Siena which made it into a Seminary. The Villa has been converted into a hotel for the past 10 years to allow our guests to admire and enjoy the charm of "Living in the Past!" Villa Sabolini has 40 rooms all finely decorated with elegant and sober style, canopy beds, terrazzo or cotto floors and bathrooms with precious marble act as a frame for a relaxing holiday in the Tuscan countryside. Completing everything is our "Sabolini" Restaurant, with its welcoming terrace, a place for Tuscan culinary tradition, where each day our Chef rediscover and reinterpret the territory's products to offer our guests the taste and flavour of time. Dishes that are born from tradition, using genuine seasonal ingredients in a simple yet refined way, making each tasting a small fragment of the unique stay memory. With its elegant style, the dining room becomes the ideal place for a candlelight dinner, for intimate receptions and unforgettable occasions. We look forward to making you enjoy an unforgettable stay... "JUST LIKE HOME"!!!SAN GIMIGNANO - Distance from the hotel: 20 km. A splendid example of a medieval town still intact in its original configuration, San Gimignano (Siena) overlooks from the top of a hill a romantic countryside where green meadows alternate with olive trees and vines. The towers that proudly tower within the village outline that magical profile that has made San Gimignano famous in the world, so much so that it has been renamed the Manhattan of the Middle Ages. The current 15 medieval towers (reminder of the 72 that the town had at the moment of maximum splendour) announce from afar to the visitor the splendour of the Tuscan town, which developed between the IX and XIII century - in an area already inhabited in Etruscan times, as a stop along the Via Francigena, important communication road between Northern Europe and Rome. Around 1150, the Francigena traced moved to the valley floor, favoring the development of Poggibonsi and Colle di Val d'Elsa, and marking the beginning of the decline of San Gimignano. At the same time, this allowed the perfect preservation of the urban planning and architecture typical of the medieval Tuscan hill towns, which today has made the town so famous as to be declared by UNESCO a heritage of humanity. Passing one of the doors of the town wall, you cross a temporal boundary, which gives us direct access to the Middle Ages: at this point you just need to lose yourself in the crossroads of the streets to savour this rare opportunity. SIENA - Distance from the hotel: 15 km. Siena retains intact the charm of the medieval period, which was the period of greatest fortune and expansion of the city. Already inhabited by Etruscans and later Roman colony, Siena owes its growth to the Via Francigena that since the early Middle Ages crossed it, offering lodging to pilgrims and travelers. Between the 13th and 14th centuries, some of the most important buildings that stand in the heart of the city were built: Piazza del Campo. Work also resumed on the construction of the Duomo, just as many noble palaces were expanded during that period. Numerous Sienese artists such as Duccio da Buoninsegna, Simone Martini, Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Arnolfo di Cambio, contributed to the growing fame of the city and many of their works are still kept in the churches and museums of Siena! Siena is strongly linked to its traditions. Do not miss the event that has been held continuously from the Middle Ages to the present day and that captures all the energies of the Sienese: the Palio, which is run in Piazza del Campo on July 2 and August 16. FLORENCE - Distance from the hotel: 45 km. Distance from the airport: 55 km. Cradle of the Renaissance and Italian art, Florence is one of the most visited cities in the world for the beauty of its landscapes and for the extraordinary richness of its architectural heritage. In the heart of Florence, one can still recognise the ordered urban planning of the Roman city, which subsequently expanded and organised around two poles: the religious one (Duomo and Baptistry) and the civil one (Piazza della Signoria). Thanks to skilled bankers and merchants, Florence began to emerge as one of the most powerful and rich cities in Europe from the 13th century, a position that allowed it to become simultaneously a center of absolute importance also in Italian artistic and cultural research. The concentration of monuments and works of art in Florence is second only to Rome, and the only way to discover them is to surrender to its charm, walking through its streets and admire its landscapes and views. PIENZA - Distance from the hotel: 74 km. Pienza is a rare example of Renaissance urbanism. Defined from time to time as the 'ideal town', the 'utopia town', it now concretely represents one of the construction methods through which in the Renaissance age a model of 'ideal' life and government was sought on earth, developing an idea of town capable of giving concrete answers to human desire for peaceful and industrious civil coexistence. Its location in the center of the Val d'Orcia, a beautiful and unspoiled valley from the landscape point of view, makes the town perfectly capable of documenting even today the fundamental interest that humanist architecture placed in the human-nature relationship, also in reference to the importance that this relationship had during the classical age. The centre of Pienza was completely modified by Enea Silvio Piccolomini following his election to the pontifical throne under the name of Pius II. Among the beauties of Pienza, there is certainly the Duomo flooded by light coming from the large glazed windows explicitly desired by Pius II, who wanted a domus vitrea, which symbolised the spirit of intellectual brightness of the Humanistic age. MONTALCINO - Distance from the hotel: 60 km. Montalcino is located on the top of a hill that dominates with a single glance the Val d'Orcia, the Val d'Arbia and the Ombrone Valley. Structured in a typically medieval way, it offers to visit the Town Hall, the Cathedral and the, Churches of S. Agostino, S. Egidio and S. Francesco. In the Archaeological Museum, there are interesting finds unearthed in the area, from the prehistoric to the Etruscan period, while in the Civic Museum you can admire two terracotta works by Andrea della Robbia. But Montalcino is above all a land of choice for one of the most important red wines of Tuscany and Italy, Brunello di Montalcino: obtained from Sangiovese grosso grapes grown in the hilly countryside surrounding the town, it is one of the best expressions of a territory and a landscape that are the heart of Tuscany. In a valley 10 km from Montalcino, since the early Middle Ages, the Abbey of Sant'Antimo stands majestic as if to invite the traveller to a stop to regenerate body and soul. Both under the majestic arches and at the foot of the centuries-old olive trees that surround it, the abbey offers sensory journeys of the soul. Today Montalcino is part of a territorial system called "Artistic, Natural and Cultural Park of the Val d'Orcia", which aims at the preservation of the extraordinary artistic heritage of the five municipalities that form it: Castiglion d'Orcia, Montalcino, Pienza, Radicofani and San Quirico d'Orcia. VOLTERRA - Distance from the hotel: 33 km. Solitary on its hill, Volterra (Pisa) rises with its austere character on a landscape characterised by the famous Balze (chasms created by landslides and landslides of the hill slopes), dominating the whole Val di Cecina up to the sea. The town retains intact the signs of the various civilisations that have accompanied it over the centuries, starting from its walls, partly of medieval origin, partly Etruscan, in which various doors open, the most famous of which is the Porta dell'Arco Etruscan. Inside the walls, we find the signs of the communal Volterra of the Middle Ages, which add charm to its beauty. PISA - Distance from the hotel: 90 km. Distance from the airport: 110 km. The city is located along the banks of the Arno in a vast alluvial plain today a few kilometres from the Tyrrhenian coast, but in the Middle Ages it was - together with Genoa, Amalfi and Venice - one of the powerful maritime republics. From that golden period comes its rich artistic heritage, in which the unforgettable Piazza dei Miracoli with the Duomo and the leaning tower, known worldwide, stand out. The international airport located a few kilometres from the city centre represents a fundamental node for the communications of the region and is particularly convenient to reach thanks also to the presence of a train connection inside the airport area. CHIANTI - Distance from the hotel: 16 km. Castellina in Chianti (Siena) is one of the most important centres in the Sienese Chianti. The village is of medieval origin and is linked to the nearby Radda and Gaiole both for the common historical events and for the economic activities. Tourism and the production of wine and oil are the driving force of the Chianti economy and the greatest pride of the area. The "Chianti wine" has been appreciated for centuries all over the world: the Consortium was established in 1924, in 1967 Chianti obtained the D.O.C. denomination and in 1984 Chianti Classico got the D.O.C.G. mark, denomination of controlled and guaranteed origin. From Siena and Florence, you can reach Castellina by taking the Siena-Florence highway and exit at Monteriggioni and take for Castellina Scalo, after the town turn right for Castellina in Chianti.CLASSIC ROOM - Tastefully decorated in a sober yet elegant style, the Classic Rooms are functional and cosy, equipped with every comfort. Most of them overlook the inner courtyard and are particularly quiet and peaceful. The Classic rooms are about 15 sqm and are recommended for a 2 people stay or for business guests as they come with a King Size or Twin bed. The bathrooms may have a tub or shower.