Courtyard house with "mandolata"

The courtyard houses in Tuscany.
The courtyard houses in Tuscany are an unusual and unique type of ancient settlement. The courtyards are formed by groups of buildings, usually in a straight line,  parallel or at right angles to each other.This layout that is Roman in origin. They are south-facing and have an open, stone or brick paved communal area where people worked or socialised, where grain was spread out to dry, and where the well and communal oven were situated.
The houses were backed onto by barns, haylofts, storerooms and outhbuildings for the various agricultural tools, which also stood in rows and marked out the communal courtyard.
The typical material of the courtyard houses was “mandolate,” bricks of varying designs and shapes which were positioned in such as way as to allow air into the haylofts.

www.casalesodini.com

Villa al Boschiglia

With the 2010 vacation season fast approaching I wanted to remind you that there are a few choice weeks left at either Villa al Boschiglia or Villa Casale Sodini.

The dollar against the euro is better than it has been for two years and plane fair from Newark to Milan is as low as $725.  All in all this makes an unforgettable Tuscan trip more affordable.

We already have several bookings for 2011, so it is not too early to consider your plans for next year.

If you have any friends that you think might be interested in this information kindly pass this along to them.  Thank you.

Villa al Boschiglia – Casale Sodini

Romantic Retreats in Tuscany

In the mood for love? Spoil someone with one of my Villas for an unforgettable, romantic holiday!

Villa al Boschiglia

Casale Sodini

Discounted Villa for rent in Tuscany

Thinking about you and receiving requests every day about the possibility to rent a villa in Tuscany with special price, we decided to let you stop here!

!!! FIRST MINUTE – 20% DISCOUNT ON ANY AVAILABLE WEEKS!!! Discounted Villa for rent in Tuscany!!! Just for you…

We’re currently running a new special offering to all new bookings a 20% discount on our 2010 fees!
This special will not last too long so take the chance to spend your holiday here in Tuscany saving up to 20% of the standard weekly rate!
For more information and details just contact us at Villaalboschiglia.com and CasaleSodini.com!

Casale Sodini

Casale Sodini Suite

Casale Sodini the pool

For more details about your private villa for rent in Tuscany, I invite you to visit Casale Sodini

Villa for rent in Lucca:

I invite you to experience a truly enchanting holiday in one of my Tuscan Villas.

Hi, my name is Samuele Sodini, owner of Villa al Boschigliaand Casale Sodini, where I serve as both proprietor and vacation counselor. You are always welcome!

Casale Sodini is proud to offer you the chance to savour – “Meeting with the Artists in Pietrasanta”.

Book the Villa during January 2009 for a stay at any time in 2009 and we’ll include “Meeting with the Artists in Pietrasanta” program of event at no extra cost!

This enchanting medieval town, so beloved to very renowed sculptors as Mitoraj, Botero, Cascella, Finotti, Capotondi, Rhon, Gamundi, Heppe, etc. , will be the special meeting point where spending a delightful and unforgettable day. This chance is not to be missed! It is an opportunity reserved to few and lucky people who love to be in touch with the “sculptor’s closest world”. Realise a work of art is always an intimate process for the artist and he is sometimes very jealous about his works, but we are allowed to this unique, incredible experience.

To start our trip, it is a pleasure for us to welcome you in Duomo Square (one of the most beautiful square in the world) around 10 o’ clock, 10:30 a.m.

We immediately reach the artist’s studio/workshop. The artist  waits for us, as an old, kind friend, just to disclose his secrets and show us how his sculpture was born. Behind a creation there is always an hard work, lot of passion and affliction till the last day, when the work is finished and the artist finally feels a great joy and forgets the agony.

A fine collection of bronzes take the same care and attention, in order to see statues made of bronze, we will visit a foundry, where we could feel again the same charm as before. The artist, as an intimate friend, will gladden us sharing the “pleasures of the table”.

We can choose a characteristic restaurant in the countryside, or one of the many restaurants on the beach breathing the sweet smell of the sea and eating fresh fish. The inevitable conclusion is a toast to celebrate this wonderful day together.

Olives, those beautiful silvery trees, have today become a visual metaphor for Italy.
Nevertheless, seldom does anyone come to Italy solely for the purpose of growing olives and making olive oil. Most foreign-born cultivators naively back into it somehow. Olives usually enter their lives on a ” bit of land ” just beyond the garden of their dream home, whether it be a humble farmhouse or a full-blown villa.
Those gnarled trunks look so expressively romantic.
The delicate leaves gently sea basking in the Mediterranean sun. The terraced groves are so suggestive of a living link across time to departed generations. Yes… but, wander into any local bar and take a look around at the old tuskers playing cards or arguing over this year’s olive crop and you’ll notice they’ve grown as gnarled as their trees.
Olive farming is indeed lovely work with long hours spent in solitary meditation, but it is also year-round hard work.
The year starts in Februarywith the cutting down of the undergrowth in the olive grove and fertilizing each tree. March and April are pruning time and burning of the cuttings. In May the trees go into bloom, dropping their tiny white flowers on the ground like a summer snow. June the undergrowth is cut again to prevent fire in the olive grove.
July and August is quit time while the olives are left to grow in the hot, dry summer. In late September, some additional light pruning and cutting undergorwth is again on the agenda.
October brings the laying of the nets. November, December and beyond is harvest time and taking the olives to the frantoio to make olive oil and January is clean up time – taking up and putting away the nets and equipment and, of course, enjoying the fruit of our labor!

Want to get away without breaking the bank? I share a very friendly ways to help you spend more time enjoying yourself and less time worrying about money. Incredible but ture! Just be in touch with me, rent Villa al Boschiglia or Casale Sodini and enjoy my Senior Concierge service to save your money travelling around Tuscany.

Have a look!

Want to get away without breaking the bank? I share a very friendly ways to help you spend more time enjoying yourself and less time worrying about money. Incredible but ture! Just be in touch with me, rent Villa al Boschiglia or Casale Sodini and enjoy my Senior Concierge service to save your money travelling around Tuscany.

Have a look!

At the end of each staying, we have this nice way to say goodbye to all our guests… not nice?