Villa Contrada

A thousand years ago the land around Villa Contrada was a boar-hunting reserve; in the eighteenth century a Tuscan count turned the lodge into an aristocratic country retreat, and that is what it remains today. Fully restored, it is one of the very few historic estates near Lucca that can sleep a party of twenty-four in twelve individually styled suites without anyone feeling they drew the short straw, with a chef, housekeeping and concierge already in place from the first morning. The original stone chapel is now a bedroom, the courtyard is planted with lemon trees around a seventeenth-century fountain, and the park runs out to olive groves with the Lucchese hills beyond. Among the Tuscan villas we represent, this is the one for a milestone birthday, a wedding week or a family gathering that needs real scale and real history.

Where exactly is Villa Contrada?

The estate lies in the countryside south-east of Lucca, in the gentle hills between the city and Montecarlo, where the landscape is olive groves, vines and cypress rather than the bare clay of the south. Lucca and its Renaissance walls are about fifteen minutes away by car. Pisa airport is roughly half an hour, Florence a little over an hour, and the beaches and beach clubs of Forte dei Marmi and Viareggio around forty minutes. The Chianti and Montecarlo wine roads, the Garfagnana valley and the Cinque Terre are all comfortable day trips. It is central enough to see Tuscany, and private enough that most parties barely leave.

What is the house like?

The main villa is the eighteenth-century residence: a sequence of grand reception rooms in warm colours under beamed ceilings, with terracotta floors and frescoed details. There is a banquet room for the whole party at one table, a music room with a piano, a billiard room, a wine library for tastings and after-dinner evenings, and several smaller sitting rooms for reading or a quiet drink away from the group. A private gym is on site.

The style is aristocratic Tuscan rather than hotel-modern: antiques, trellised frescoes, deep sofas, and the kind of proportions that only a house of this age can offer. The comforts are contemporary throughout, with air conditioning and heating in the suites, Wi-Fi, and Jacuzzi baths in a number of the en-suite bathrooms.

How are the bedrooms arranged?

Twelve suites, each individually decorated and each with its own bathroom, spread between the main villa and the buildings around the courtyard, which gives a large party natural privacy: couples, families with children and single friends can each take a wing. The former stone chapel is the most memorable of them, with its vaulted ceiling and a view over the pool and the lemon-tree courtyard. Several suites gather around the seventeenth-century fountain. The estate sleeps twenty-four in beds, with a little flexibility beyond that on request.

What is outside?

The swimming pool sits in the lemon-tree courtyard, and the park around the house holds ornamental ponds, antique fountains, formal Italian gardens and quiet corners for a long walk after lunch. Beyond the gardens are the olive groves and the hills. A tennis court and a sports field for football and volleyball, with equipment, are part of the estate, and there is space for a long table under the trees, a pizza evening or a wedding dinner.

Is the villa staffed?

Yes, and generously. A private chef prepares breakfast every day and one main meal, lunch or dinner as you prefer, six days a week, with menus built around Lucchese produce and your party’s tastes; housekeeping comes every morning six days a week, with a mid-week linen change; a porter and a concierge are on hand throughout the stay, and the pool and gardens are tended daily. Groceries and the chef’s ingredients are the only thing the party provides, and the concierge will have the kitchen stocked before arrival if you send a list.

What can the concierge arrange?

Pre-arrival grocery and wine stocking. Additional chef service on the chef’s day off, or a full-board arrangement. Private cooking classes in the villa kitchen, and guided tastings in the wine library. Vineyard tours in Montecarlo and Chianti, private guides for Lucca, Pisa and Florence, a day on a yacht from Viareggio or the Cinque Terre by boat, hot-air ballooning, bicycles for the Lucca walls, in-villa massage and yoga, babysitters, airport transfers and drivers, and the full programme for a birthday or wedding week: pizzaiolo parties, cakes from a Lucca pasticceria, musicians, flowers and photographers.

Who is Villa Contrada right for?

Milestone birthdays, wedding weeks, three-generation family reunions and groups of friends of eighteen to twenty-four who want one address with the staff already in place. It is a house where twenty people can eat together in the banquet room and then disappear into twelve different corners of the estate, which is the rare thing at this size. Events are welcome by arrangement.

Good to know

Check-in from 4 pm, check-out by 10 am. Air conditioning, heating, water and gas are included up to a generous allowance. Pets by arrangement. Full terms, deposit and cancellation policy confirmed at booking.

A few days at Villa Contrada

Cycle the four kilometres of Lucca’s Renaissance walls in the morning, climb the Guinigi Tower, and lunch in the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro.

Spend an afternoon at the pool, then a tasting of Montecarlo and Chianti wines in the villa’s own wine library before dinner.

Drive to Pisa for the Field of Miracles, or to Florence for a day of the Uffizi and the Oltrarno.

Stay home: a pizzaiolo on the terrace, the chef’s Tuscan dinner in the banquet room, and the long summer light over the olive groves.

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