Glorious Tuscan country houses that will have you wanting to move there
We can all easily summon an image in our minds of the Tuscan countryside: rolling hills, cypress trees, golden sunlight and stone houses perched on hilltops. It's a landscape that has captivated the imaginations of countless people, many expats among them, who have bought up the region's farmhouses, villas, and former convents and monasteries to turn them into beautiful dwellings. Some of these restoration projects stay true to the past and heritage of the building, while others set a contemporary interior against these historic backdrops. If you've ever dreamed of moving to Tuscany, these houses might just convince you to take the plunge.
Simon Watson1/10A restored 16th-century convent in Pitigliano
A mother-and-daughter design duo, Holly Lueders and Venetia Sacret-Young, has taken an unconventional approach to the conversion of this former convent, filling the rooms with objects and artworks of their own making.
The house is still entered through a tinaio – the place where monks traditionally stored wine in huge vats, which have been left in situ.
Simon Watson2/10Holly remembers their first visit to the convent, which had been uninhabited for 60 years. ‘It was late summer, the ground was dry and there were no trees. The building had no glass in the windows, running water or electricity.’ They thought it was perfect. ‘We both had the same feeling that this was the best version of the fantasy we had in mind,’ adds Venetia.
Davide Lovatti3/10A sculptor's former monastery on a Tuscan hilltop
In a former monastery on a hilltop in southern Tuscany, the residence and studio of British sculptor Emily Young is the ideal setting for her stone carved heads and figures, each telling a story of their own. The Convento di Santa Croce is an imposing golden block of a building, flanked by lofty cypress trees. It is a seventeenth-century monastery that overlooks the hilltop town of Batignano and was originally built to accommodate 21 friars. The kitchen was once the sacristy of the church.
Richard Powers5/10A captivating farmhouse in the Val d'Orcia
It took the owners years to find this stone farmhouse in Tuscany and even longer to get permission for the renovation that they had in mind – but it was certainly worth the wait. The 18th-century farmhouse, known as a podere, consisted of a number of smaller stone buildings and stables arranged in a U-shape around a central courtyard. It had begun to crumble and required extensive restoration.
Robyn Lea7/10Camilla Guinness' romantic villa in the hills of Tuscany
Arniano is a traditional stone-and-brick Tuscan farmhouse dating from the 18th century, home to the interior designer Camilla Guinness, and where her daughter Amber also runs a painting school. This bedroom has a mural by artist Virginia Loughnan and a bed designed by Camilla.
Davide Lovatti9/10A gallerist's base in the Tuscan hills
After years of renting houses for family holidays, Shiro Muchiri decided to establish a more permanent base in Tuscany and, by combining two dilapidated dwellings on a sprawling estate, has created a harmonious home worthy of its spectacular setting.
Davide Lovatti10/10Shiro’s plan was to convert the two dwellings into a single home: an enormous project under any circumstances, but made all the more challenging when accompanied by the infamous, multi-tiered bureaucracy of Tuscan planning departments. And not only was there no electricity or running water, but as the house was not accessible by car, they also had to construct a road to it.
