Renting a house in Tuscany - this hugely impressive vacation villa for rent outside Cortona, Tuscany sleeps 11 guests. Combining Tuscan tradition, modern comforts and amazing views, this could be your perfect holiday in Italy.
Enter the gates of this amazing villa and you are surrounded by a stunning landscape. The countryside stretches out before the Etruscan city of Cortona, a rich and fertile landscape of olive groves, orchards, and fine vineyards. The Tuscans perfected the city and countryside around the time of the Renaissance - and little has changed since.
The road to Cortona climbs along the broad flank of a mountain, (lovers of Impressionist art should think of Cezanne's Mont Saint Victoire. At the apex of a deep curve in the road (cut in the 18th century to allow the passage of carriages), you will come across an imposing gate that opens into the park and gardens of the villa.
The house was transformed over several hundreds of years until it took its present form at the end of the 19th century. Underneath its 'modern' additions, the main structure of the house is a simple, rectangular building dating back to the 16th century, and painted in the yellow ochre popular during the 19th century. The main floor was built in the 18th century and has the typical frames and ornaments of the neo-classical style.
Inside the house rises a beautiful staircase whose structure recalls the art nouveau style. Villa delle Contesse is in fact a mingling and melding of all sorts of styles - of centuries, of countries, and of diverse painting, architectural and cultural styles. Behind the main structure hides the smaller building of the family chapel, which was rebuilt from an earlier structure of rough masonry; here you'll find the amazing frescoes of a brilliant American painter, Sarai Sherman, which give a touch of modernity and make this villa even more incredible.
This villa is on three floors, but the stairs between the ground and first floors are so short as to consider the two floors as one.
