Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
featuring wine pairings—it's a great way
to explore a variety of local wines, which
include far more than just the effervescent
méthode
Champenoise
wines.
Traveling around the Champagne
region, you'll wander through wineries in
several grand châteaux. Here's your
chance to stay in one yourself, and feel like
a champagne baron at least for a night.
64 bd. Henri-Vasnier (
&
33/3/26-82-
80-80
; www.lescrayeres.com).
(
0
Reims (2.2km/1
1
/
3
miles).
Gourmet Inns & Resorts
78
Locanda dell'Amorosa
Back to the Farm
Sinalunga, Italy
In the Chiana valley, just east of Siena and
south of Arezzo, an arrow-straight country
lane lined with slim dark cypresses leads
away from modern-day Sinalunga to a
charming relic of Italy's rich agrarian past.
Spend a few days at Locanda dell'Amorosa
and you'll find the ideals of the Slow Food
movement making more sense to you
than ever.
In medieval times, Amorosa was a bus-
tling, self-sufficient feudal farm complex,
attached to a manor house owned by the
powerful Piccolominis of Pienza. The vil-
lagers lived in an arcaded building of
rough-cast fieldstone and bricks, its shal-
low red-tiled roofs fending off the Tuscan
sun, right across the courtyard from the
cattle barns and other farm buildings.
Back in the 14th century, such farming
communes peppered the Italian country-
side; Amorosa is one of the few that have
survived. It's still a working farm, although
today its surrounding fields grow gourmet
crops like grapes, olives, and sunflowers;
the manor is decked out with upscale
guest rooms, and the old stone stables
house one of Tuscany's most atmospheric
restaurants.
The estate's current owners turned it
into a country restaurant, Le Coccole, in
1971, with the idea of bringing the farm's
products directly to the public in fine-din-
ing form. In the wake of the restaurant's
success, the owners added 27 guest
rooms as well, decorated in an eclectic
mix of country antiques and rustic hand-
made furniture, with wood-beamed ceil-
ings, whitewashed plaster walls, and large
casement windows looking out across the
farmlands. Though fully outfitted with
modern amenities, they still exude a won-
derful peasant sturdiness and simplicity
that's ideally suited to the site.
Locanda dell'Amorosa is still a working farm.
