The wide plain that stretches south and west of Montecatini Terme is a sprawl of light industry, interspersed with garden nurseries with rows of baby cypresses and pintsize olives. But in the hills that rim this reclaimed marshland, nature is life-size and untamed. Colle di Buggiano is a tiny, walled village to the north of the plain. Three parallel streets somehow converge on a square with a church, a post office, a restaurant and a bar where stiffly-coiffed local ladies challenge the male monopoly by sitting outside, playing cards for money. Just inside the gate at the top end of the village, a solid, brick-and-stone-built house owned by a Tuscan architect and his Venetian wife has been turned into a charming, six-room B&B.
The original structure of the Antica Casa le Rondini (rondini are swallows) dates from the 16th century, but like most of the other village houses it is a historical palimpsest that carries the history of its alterations on its façade: bricked-up Gothic arches and windows that have been shifted three or four times, like the pentimenti of a Renaissance painter. Inside, the house has been restored and redecorated with just the right dose of antique excess and modern restraint. On the first floor, the two-star guestrooms (a little more expensive than the others) have 18th-century frescoes of garden scenes, which came to light when the plaster was stripped off. Second-floor rooms are done out in pastels, with antique furniture and colourful touches such as the assorted end-of-line tiles that patchwork the shower floors.
Opposite the house is a walled garden where breakfast is served, with an espaliered lemon tree against a south-facing wall - a tradition in this area, which is the citrus capital of Italy. The owners are authorities on local sights (including two or three splendid formal gardens such as Villa Garzoni in Collodi), walks and restaurants. But one of the
real delights obf the Antica Casa le Rondini is the fact that there's no real need to go anywhere; the village itself, a car-free zone which has not (yet) been usurped by second-home owners, is balm to the city-stressed soul.
CONTACT
Antica Casa le Rondini, via M Pierucci 21, Colle di Buggiano (00 39 0572 33313;
email: info@anticasa.it; www.anticacasa.it)
Each of these B&Bs can also be booked direct through Caffèlletto (00 39 02 331 1814; www.caffelletto.it)
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