Cascina Toetto

Piedmont Wine Country Villa for A Crowd

With seven bedrooms and baths, this sizable country villa is fit for a crowd. Its façade presents a contemporary reinterpretation of the original, and the villa’s interior is vivid, sleek and created for modern living. Original wood ceiling beams are on show in several rooms as are traditional exposed bricks, yet the attentive renovation focused on ushering the property into a new era—one where gathering both indoors and out is the priority. The house features several shared seating areas, a semi-professional kitchen, and a feast-sized, farm-styled dining table for 14.

The generosity of space continues outdoors, where the oversized infinity pool (12m x 5m) lined with sun loungers stretches out overlooking the hills and vineyards. There’s a covered lounge patio, barbecue set up, and outdoor shower as well. Experiences, by request, include an on-site cook, wine tours and tastings, yoga sessions, and e-bike rental.

Around

Located at the entrance to the small village of Castelnuovo Calcea in Italy’s Piedmont wine country, and only nine kilometers from Nizza Monferrato, the property offers generous country living in the hills overlooking the fields and vineyards. Asti and Alba are both nearby, 19 and 30 kilometers, respectively. Only a few steps from the property the authentic (and owner-recommended) Il Boschetto di Vignole trattoria offers traditional country fare. Dario, the owner, will greet you, while his talented co-owner/wife cooks up delicious regional specialties. Make your way to Nizza Monferrato, where rich Barbera wine has been produced for some 500 years. The most important grape variety of the Piedmont region, Barbera makes up 35 percent of the vine-covered hills, and the village makes a great base for viticultural tourism, offering winery and vineyard tours, cellars and shops, tasting rooms, guided farm visits and truffle hunting tours. The town’s architecture includes ancient battlements and palazzos as well as a neoclassical, arcaded Historical Archive designed in 1769 by Filippo Nicolis di Robilant on an existing 15th-century structure.

A region of Italy that is delightfully lesser-traveled than most, the Piedmont is the country’s second largest region area-wise, a land blanketed by vineyards, fields both cultivated and wild, and dense mountain forests with rocky outcroppings and fast-flowing streams. Bordering France and Switzerland, the Alps rise from the Piedmont’s fertile valleys, the region’s name literally meaning “foot of the mountain.” A nature lover’s paradise, the area is a winter sports lover’s playground—same striking Alps, less of a crowd. It is also a hiker’s dreamscape in the warmer months. Piedmont’s capital, Turin is a mid-sized city of Baroque architecture, sprawling palazzos, and the famed, spire-topped landmark Mole Antonellana.

Perhaps best known for its excellent wines and abundant local produce, the Piedmont gets referred to as Europe’s larder for its rice and grain cultivation, and the markets and farmstands within regional villages overflow with the fertile region’s celebrated produce, best enjoyed over deep bottles of Barbera, Barolo and other locally-produced wines. Gastronomy is at the region’s forefront, and restaurants, trattoria and family-run mountain lodges offer hearty fare as well as dazzlingly refined flavors. The white truffle festival of Alba is a regional draw, and wine tasting cellars will reveal the magic of the region’s nebbiola, barbera, and dolcetto grape varieties.

Location

Nearest airport: Torino (110km), Milano (150km)

Best time to visit

April to November