Villa Paron Cilli

Its own hill, half an hour from Florence

A completely restored stone villa standing alone on a rise in the hills of San Casciano in Val di Pesa, on the road south from Florence into Chianti. Cypresses, olive groves and vineyards on every side, no neighbours in sight, and a long turquoise pool cut into the terrace below the house.

Inside, the restoration has kept the bones and modernised everything else: chestnut beams and terracotta ceilings above travertine floors, rubble stone walls left exposed, and glass walls that slide fully back so the living room opens straight onto the terrace and the valley. The kitchen and dining room are one long room under the beams — a dark island with bar stools at one end, a table for twelve under a cluster of glass globes at the other. Seven bedrooms, each with its own bathroom; several with freestanding baths under the rafters.

Outside there is more room than most groups know what to do with: a shaded pergola lounge facing the hills, a fire pit, a long covered dining loggia, a games room with a full-size pool table, and the pool terrace with its steps and loungers. The sun sets straight down the valley.

In the film

• 0:00The estate from aboveThe villa, the pool and the olive groves
• 0:04The pool terraceTravertine steps, loungers, cypresses
• 0:09Living roomGlass wall slid back onto the terrace
• 0:14Dining into the kitchenOne unbroken move the length of the room
• 0:20BedroomWindows open to the cypresses
• 0:25BathroomFreestanding bath under the beams
• 0:30Games roomFull-size pool table
• 0:34Pergola loungeStriped sofas above the valley
• 0:39SunsetThe sun going down over the hills
• 0:44The pool at duskStill water, lit windows, blue hour