Villa Rosilda

A Classic Italian Wine Country Villa for Rent in Piedmont

Capping a panoramic hilltop in Italian wine country, this vineyard-surrounded villa with a pool has been thoroughly modernized by Capellino Architettura, ushering the elegant traditional structure into the 21st century. The generous manor house is ideal for a crowd, its lower level filled with gracious and spacious common areas for entertaining, including a newly equipped kitchen with a prep island and farm table, plus a formal dining room opposite a contemporary fireplace with several windows overlooking the vineyards.

One of the villa’s five bedrooms is downstairs, with a dedicated hallway bath, and four other bedrooms fill the mansion’s upper level. Upstairs bedrooms (three kings, one queen) all feature ensuite bathrooms.

Outdoors, the garden covers the hilltop, featuring an L-shaped swimming pool adjacent to an outdoor grilling/dining area, 360-degree views of the surrounding vineyards, a boccia court, and several quiet corners, including an overgrown gazebo, to retreat, rest, and relax.

Around

The house is located only two kilometers from Nizza Monferrato, the youngest DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Contrallata e Garantita) or designated wine region in Italy’s greater Piedmont. The village of Nizza Monferrato is walking distance, situated along one of the region's most scenic roads within a community where rich Barbera wine has been produced for some 500 years. In fact, as the most important grape variety of the Piedmont region, Barbera makes up 35 percent of the vineyards, and the village offers a great base for viticultural tourism, offering winery tours, cellars and shops, tasting rooms, guided farm visits and truffle hunting. The town’s architecture includes ancient battlements and palazzi as well as a neoclassical, arcaded Historical Archive designed in 1769 by Filippo Nicolis di Robilant. Wine tourists should head to the 18th-century Palazzo Crova, home to the Regional Enoteca of Nizza Monferrato, the point of reference for Barbera lovers.

A region of Italy that is less traveled than most, Piedmont is 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, and also a hiker’s dreamscape in the warmer months.

Piedmont’s capital city, Turin, is a mid-sized city of Baroque architecture, sprawling palazzi, and the famed, spire-topped landmark Mole Antonellana. Piedmont is to as Europe’s larder for its rice and grain cultivation, and the markets and farmstands within regional villages overflow with its celebrated produce. Gastronomy is at the region’s forefront, and restaurants, trattoria and family-run mountain lodges offer rich, hearty fare as well as dazzlingly refined flavors. The white truffle festival of Alba is a regional draw.

Location

Nearest airports: Milan (150km); Turin (120km)

Best time to visit

April to November