Maria

Villa Maria stands in its own two hectares a few kilometres outside the walls of Lucca, and what sets it apart is not the house alone but how much of the week comes with it. Breakfast is delivered and laid out every morning. A chef cooks lunch or dinner three times a week. A pizzaiolo fires the oven once a week. Housekeeping comes six hours a day. A guided tour of Lucca and a day at a beach club in Forte dei Marmi are part of the stay, and there are bikes and e-bikes in the garage for the ride round the walls. Six en-suite bedrooms sleep twelve, a lift connects the floors, and the basement holds a heated indoor pool, a sauna, a hammam and a treatment room. Among the Tuscan villas we represent, this is the one for a family or a milestone week that wants the week organised before anyone arrives.

Where exactly is Villa Maria?

The villa sits in the countryside outside Lucca, fifteen minutes from the city gates. This is the gentler, greener side of Tuscany — olive groves, vines and the Lucchese hills rather than the bare clay of the south — and it is unusually well placed.

Pisa Galileo Galilei airport is thirty minutes away, Florence Peretola fifty, and Florence itself about an hour and ten. Forte dei Marmi and the beach clubs of the Versilia coast are a comfortable drive, and one day at a beach club there is included in the stay. The Montecarlo and Chianti wine roads, the Garfagnana valley and the Cinque Terre are all within day-trip range.

What is the house like inside?

The interiors mix antiques with contemporary pieces under Murano glass chandeliers — Lucchese in character rather than rustic-farmhouse. There is a sitting and reading room on each floor, which matters in a house of twelve: the party can split without anyone being sent upstairs.

The kitchen is fully equipped and sits beside a formal dining room that seats twelve at one table. There is a fireplace, smart televisions with Netflix, a dishwasher, washer and dryer, safes in the rooms, air conditioning throughout and central heating.

A lift connects the floors, which is rare in a house of this kind and makes Villa Maria workable for a guest who cannot manage stairs.

The wellness floor

The basement is given over to it: a heated indoor pool of 6 by 6 metres with hydromassage jets, a sauna, a hammam, a treatment and massage room, a relaxation lounge and the wine cellar. Two hours a day of sauna and hammam are included in the rate; beyond that, and for spa and beauty treatments, it is arranged on site.

How are the bedrooms arranged?

Six bedrooms, six en-suite bathrooms, twelve guests. Every room has air conditioning, and every bed can be made up as a king or as twins on request, which makes the house adapt to the party rather than the other way round.

First floor

• King or twin — double basins, bath and a separate large shower
• King or twin — double basins, bath and shower
• Queen or twin — double basins, shower

Second floor

• Queen or twin — shower
• King or twin — double basins, shower
• Queen or twin — shower

Bathrooms come with hairdryers, robes and proper toiletries. Note that parts of the second floor have lower ceilings, as they do in most houses of this age.

What is outside?

Two hectares of private grounds, with fruit trees, a vegetable garden and an olive grove that produces the estate’s own extra virgin olive oil.

The outdoor pool is a serious one: 18 metres by 8, 1.55 metres deep, with an outdoor shower beside it and sun beds on the lawn. It is open from May to October. There is a terrace for dining, a gazebo for the quiet hour, a wood-fired pizza oven and a barbecue, a private tennis court, and ample parking inside the gates.

What is included?

This is where Villa Maria separates itself from most Tuscan villas at this level:

• Daily buffet breakfast, Italian style, delivered to the villa
• Chef service for lunch or dinner three times a week (ingredients charged separately)
• A pizzaiolo for a pizza night once a week (ingredients charged separately)
• Daily housekeeping, six hours a day
• Bed and bath linen changed twice a week
• One guided tour of Lucca (transport not included)
• One day at a beach club in Forte dei Marmi (transport not included)
• Bicycles and e-bikes
• Two hours a day of sauna and hammam
• Indoor pool, heated October to May
• Welcome drink and a welcome pantry basket
• All utilities, air conditioning and final cleaning
• Garden and pool maintenance
• A night patrol, twice nightly

Staff live on the estate in their own quarters with a separate entrance, so the service is close at hand without being in the house.

What is arranged separately?

Food and drink, additional housekeeping or chef hours, personal laundry, extra sauna and hammam time, spa and beauty treatments, wine from the cellar and the honesty bar, babysitting, and heating of the indoor pool between June and September.

Through the Haute Retreats concierge we add the rest: private guides for Florence, Pisa and Siena, vineyard visits in Montecarlo and Chianti, cooking classes in the villa kitchen, a boat day from Viareggio, in-villa massage and yoga, drivers and airport transfers, and the full programme for a birthday or anniversary week.

Who is Villa Maria right for?

Families and groups of up to twelve who want Tuscany without organising it — the breakfasts, the chef nights, the pizza evening, the tour and the beach day are already in place, and the rest is built around them. It suits a multi-generational week, a milestone birthday, and equally a quiet shoulder-season stay in May or October when the indoor pool is heated and Lucca is empty.

The lift makes it one of the few houses of this character in the area that works for a guest with limited mobility.

Good to know

Check-in 16:00 to 19:00, check-out by 10:00. Minimum stay seven nights. The outdoor pool is open May to October; the indoor pool is heated October to May. Children are welcome. The villa is non-smoking. Damage liability €3,000. Visitor’s tax is payable locally in cash for the first seven days. Services taken on site are settled before departure unless arranged otherwise. Availability and rates are subject to change, and full terms are confirmed at booking.

CIN IT046007B9ZSOZBAUX

A few days at Villa Maria

Breakfast laid out on the terrace, then the bikes out and the four kilometres of Lucca’s Renaissance walls before the day warms up.

An afternoon between the eighteen-metre pool and the tennis court, with the pizzaiolo lighting the oven for the evening.

The included day at Forte dei Marmi — a lounger, lunch on the sand, and back through the hills in the late light.

Stay home entirely: the sauna and hammam downstairs, a massage in the treatment room, and the chef’s dinner at the long table for twelve.

Rent Villa Maria full property 9 bedrooms

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