If it wasn’t for Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, I wouldn’t be here. I don’t mean that I’m one of his descendants, rather, I am temporarily residing at L’Andana, the villa he built for opulent banquets way back in 1826 when he felt the need to get away from the clamour of life in Rome. The setting is soothingly rural – vineyards, wild flowers, long-horn cattle, a dusty mile-long driveway flanked with maritime pine and cypress trees, and the Tyrrhenian Sea far in the distance. In the morning, the leaves of ancient olive trees flicker silver in the morning breeze and, in the evening, the warm air is scented with purple lavender.
La Badiola estate is a 90-minute drive from Pisa airport, in Tuscan Maremma and, after 30 years sitting abandoned, Leopold’s hilltop retreat was bought in 2000 by the wine-producing Moretti family. They set about planting 30 of its 500 hectares with vines and, in 2004, three Michelin-star chef Alain Ducasse (of the Dorchester hotel in London) came on board both as hotelier and cuisinier. Under the guidance of Ettore Mocchetti, architect and editor-in-chief of Italy’s Architectural Digest magazine, the crumbling buildings were transformed into a luxury auberge.
As I explore the property, I notice it has been sensitively restored to maintain the look and feel of a Medici residence but with subtle contemporary features and fittings – the 20 bedrooms and 13 suites have antique oak parquet floors, LCD televisions, free wifi and decadent 5 sqm step-in baths with mosaic tiles and overhead rainshowers. There are two outdoor swimming pools, a gym with a charismatic personal trainer on-hand to get you into shape with bootcamp sessions and hikes, and a spa with saunas, steam rooms, a heated indoor pool and therapists to indulge you with deeply relaxing massages.
And then there are the restaurants. In the main building, La Villa serves white-tablecloth meals throughout the day, but its breakfast and Sunday brunch buffets are the real highlight – homemade jam and custard doughnuts, orange flower brioche, organic strawberries, fresh mozzarella, hen’s eggs and cold cuts. Sometimes there are barbecues on the lawn in the evening, and a stroll through the garden takes you to Ducasse’s cosy Trattoria Toscana for candle-lit fine-dining in full view of the vineyards.
When the Duke came looking for the perfect spot to set up his country pile, he was drawn to the fact that although one side of the land was swampy, on the other there was a spring, and because the water was drinkable it was called the “right water”, or acqua giusta in Italian. It seemed appropriate, therefore, to the Morettis, to take this as the name for the four wines they produce: a white Acquagiusta made purely with Vermentino grapes; a rosato with 100 per cent Alicante; a blended red of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah; and the premium white Acquadoro, made with 100 per cent Viognier.
The first harvest was in 2005, and when it came to designing labels for the bottles, a talented friend of the family acted as consultant – this was none other than renowned Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani, the man responsible for Benetton’s infamous advertising campaigns during the 1980s and 90s. “When we decided on the name, he wanted to design it,” says Elena Antinucci, hospitality manager for Tenuta la Badiola winery. “We are a young wine producer in the region, making something different that doesn’t already exist.” Toscani came up with a minimalist transparent label printed with a metallic wine glass stain encircling a sans serif font. Nowadays, along with 10,000 bottles of olive oil, 200,000 bottles of wine are produced every year, and wine tastings and tours of the on-site cellar are easily arranged.
On the second day of my stay, I’m in the kitchen with chef Omar Agostini. He’s cracked open a chilled bottle of the straw-coloured Vermentino and is describing the flavours to me as I sip it. “Herbs, mango, banana, salt from the sea. A mineral aftertaste; light, fresh and persistent on the palate,” he says with pleasure, after swilling it in his mouth. “Right, and now to work.”
L’Andana offers guests the opportunity to take part in cooking classes, and today I am learning how to make fresh pasta and torta di verdure – a typical Italian dish comprised of slices of roasted aubergine wrapped around a filling of fried tomatoes, courgettes, onions, garlic and herbs picked from the garden.
Making the pasta is fun. I begin with a mound of flour and make a hollow in the centre into which I crack an egg, add grated pecorino cheese, chives, plain yogurt, salt and pepper. Omar instructs me to mix it all together with my fingers and work it into a firm dough, before rolling it into a 3mm-thick sheet. He then presents me with a wooden pasta cutter strung like a guitar but with dozens of closely arranged strings. We lay the pasta on top and push the rolling pin across it hard, and in a moment it has cut a perfect pile of square spaghetti, which we gently fold into nests.
At nightfall, I walk to the Trattoria, where Omar, in his tall white chef’s hat, bakes my torta in a circular pie tray, cooks my pasta, plates it all up and brings it out to me to eat. (Fortunately, it’s a success.) Other dishes you can learn to make include Tuscan specialities such as pappa al pomodoro (tomato and bread soup) and gnocchi with Chianina beef ragout (remember the longhorn cows?). And if you visit during October, you can hunt for truffles around Siena before feasting on Parmigiano cream, chicken tortellini and veal sweetbread, each lavished with the rich aromatic shavings of what you find. Duke Leopold would be proud of the precedent he has set.
