A typical Tuscan Farmhouse, recently restored
Villa Gourmet is a splendid Tuscan Farmhouse, built in the 18th Century, and set in the countryside between Pisa and Lucca.
The first Tuscan farmhouses and cottages go back to the 16th Century and were often built, quite distant from the villages and surrounded by farmland, as part of the share-cropping system where the owner and the actual farmer shared the crops.
They were usually built using local stone and handmade brickwork and the roof covered with typical curved roof tiles and terracotta flat tiles, again handmade. Another distinctive characteristic of Tuscan buildings is ceilings made of Florentine terracotta tiles and wooden beams.
The building was the hub and centre of the various farming activities that had to do with collecting and storing the season’s harvest, sun-drying and threshing the harvested grain in the yard. It was quite common to build stables and a barn next to the farmhouse, for rearing farmyard animals such as sheep, goats, poultry and pigs, supplying enough food to the families of the farmworkers. In Villa Gourmet’s case, the stables and barn have been skilfully rebuilt creating space for the lounge and loft with the large glass windows offering views of the surrounding countryside.
Essential elements of country life were the well, from which to draw water, and the traditional stone wood oven, for baking Tuscan bread and with handmade terracotta vaults. Since the 50s and the arrival of factory-produced loaves, almost all of the stone bread baking ovens have been used for cooking pizza. As tradition has it, Villa Gourmet boasts 2 traditional wood-burning ovens, one in the kitchen itself and the other near the veranda, next to the pool.
It is highly likely that, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Farmhouse of Villa Gourmet was abandoned, as people tended to move, leaving the country for the city. It was only recently, at the beginning of the new millennium, that the property was saved and restored with renovations finishing in 2005 and later, at the end of 2014, the construction of the pool and veranda was complete.
The 330 square metre Farmhouse has been carefully restored and furnished in the most elegant and tasteful way even in the smallest details: a fireplace stove, central heating, parquet flooring, wooden beamed vaulted terracotta ceilings, pastel coloured wall and frescoes in a different parts of the house, some rooms with total air comfort and ant mosquito netting on windows. A large parking area is available within the grounds of the Farmhouse.
Villa Gourmet is the ideal starting point for visiting Tuscany’s main attractions, a stone’s throw from Lucca, Pisa and Florence. Alternatively guests can spend time relaxing in the infinity swimming pool, in the enormous gardens or on the charming veranda near the pool with views of grapevines and wood oven and barbecue on hand, a special area designed for young children to play in while for older ones, table-tennis and a football pitch (ideal for five-a-side or mini soccer), all within the grounds of the Farmhouse.
