Poggiarello's high tower was built around the turn of the first millenium as a grainery, where local farmers stored their harvest and sentries from Siena guarded it from attacking Florentines. In the sixteenth century the property was acquired by the Chigi-Saracini family and converted to a country estate.The Chigi family owned a number of estates in the area of Poggiarello and had close ties to Rome, having furnished the Vatican with a number of popes. The Chigis commissioned the beautiful private chapel at Poggiarello from Baldassare Peruzzi, the architect of the Villa Farnesina in Rome.The Fineschi-Pianigiani family, who now owns Poggiarello, use the chapel for family weddings and baptisms.

Castello Poggiarello“...la Villa del Poggiarello, con un palazzo et una torre tutti di pietra e fortificati al antica, ma con più sorte di comodità, così per l'abitazione del padrone, come per conservatione delle robbe e con cortile, piazza, gallinaio, cappella, giardino e altre piazze esterne, e sodi con l'infrascritti poderi, chiuse e beni parte lavorati al presente a mezzaria e parte fatti coltivare in riguardo delle viti dallo stesso padrone, essendo alcuni solo lavorativi, alcuni a vigne, ad anguillacci, et altri olivati e coltivati ad arbori con viti e con arbori domestici d'ogni sorte...”dal testamento di Agostino Chigi 1636

Castello Poggiarello TODAY

The great luxuries at Poggiarello are the vast spaces indoors and out, and the nearness of nature in all the seasons.

Castello Poggiarello in EACH SEASON

SPRING

Everything is fresh, green and growing. The birds make a truly deafening racket in the morning. It's the season of camellias, peonies and peach trees in bloom, of asparagus, artichokes and bacelli beans with fresh pecorino.

SUMMER

In the summer, the intensity of the sun's light and heat still the flowers, birds and lizards, and the courtyard stones radiate the day's heat late into the evening.

FALL

Nature comes alive again after the summer's stilling, bleaching heat. Dahlias bloom along with forest flowers, and mushrooms and wild animals appear with the first cool breezes and evening rains. The vines finally lose their lives when the first frosts arrive on crisp November nights.

WINTER

Occasional snow, frequent rain and those precious sunny February days - the forest, the vineyards and the fields are asleep. It's the season for Carnevale though, costumes and parties abound and the old ladies set to work cooking the best sweets of the year: frittelle, cenci and ciambelline!

Castello Poggiarello: GUEST HOUSES

We have two spacious apartments for four available from May 15 to September 15 and a guest house for two available all year round.

CARLOTTA: for two

General décor: Exposed-beam ceilings, brick arches, parquet floors, Tuscan antique furniture.
Kitchen: Large kitchen, hand-made tiles, marble countertop, hand-made wooden cabinets, fine ceramics, glassware, linens. Double glass doors opening onto the private terrace and garden, with potted citrus trees and teak furniture. The kitchen has a marble table for dining.
Living room: Sofa bed and easy chair decorated in Italian fabrics, CD player, large satellite TV, coffee-table books about the region, glass door wood-burning stove.
Bedroom: Queen size bed, antique armoire and dresser. Double glass doors open onto the terrace and garden.
Bathroom: With shower and bidet, beautiful tiles, fine linens.

VIOLETTA: for four

General decor: Exposed-beam ceilings, brick arches, antique terracotta floors, tuscan antique furniture. Very spacious.
Kitchen: Hand-made tiles, marble countertop, hand-made wooden cabinets. Fine ceramics, glassware etc. Dishwasher. Wood dining table seats 6.
Living room: Sofa, easy chairs and curtains in fine Italian fabrics, CD player, coffee-table books about the region.
Bathrooms: One with bathtub, shower, bidet, toilet and sink; One with shower, toilet, sink and wachine machine. Fine linens.

AMELIA: for four

General decor: Exposed-beam ceilings, brick arches, antique terracotta floors, tuscan antique furniture. Very spacious.
Kitchen: Hand-made tiles, marble countertop, hand-made wooden cabinets. Fine ceramics, glassware etc. Dishwasher. Marble-top dining table seats 6.
Living room: Sofa, easy chairs and curtains in fine Italian fabrics, CD player, coffee-table books about the region.
Bathroom: With shower, toilet, bidet and sink.

Castello Poggiarello: DIVERSIONS

Tuscany, the Tuscan lifestyle and the Tuscans themselves are vastly different from how they have been portrayed in literature and films recently—all three are hard, if not impossible, to get to know. Maybe you can know Tuscany if you work the land for a few seasons, I you spend a few winters in a drafty country villa, walk Siena's rainy streets in February, learn to pluck freshly shot doves or make Migliacci from pigs' blood. As for the Tuscans...

Our neighbour is an 80-year-old farmer whose father was foreman on our estate between the world wars. Last year, he approached my husband (whom he watched grow up) and suggested that they address one another in the informal "tu" instead of the formal "lei". I guess it took them 49 years to get to know each other...

WINE TASTING

If you would like to get to know Italy's wines, Poggiarello is a good place to do it. On Sunday evenings, we often gather in the rustico to open some bottles and taste wines with our guests.

Castello Poggiarello: WINE

After the second world war, Poggiarello stood empty for almost thirty years—empty of people, but full of wine. Hundreds of barrels of wine lined the walls of the enormous barn on the west side of the house, and thousands of bottles of vin santo were stacked in the towers—those towers now house bedrooms, whose parquet floors were made from the wood of the barrels. A twenty-year project to restore the property's castle and gardens is rightfully culminating in the re-planting of her vineyards, which were abandoned to sunflower farming in the 1920s.