Tuscany villa accommodation

The ancient houses at our Tuscany villa accommodation have been restored using natural materials only, such as stones, wood and terracotta tiles. Recycling bins are at disposal of our guests for organic waste, paper, glass and plastic. The olives, which are processed into our extra virgin olive oil, are grown biologically as well as our herbs and saffron. We use energy saving lamps at our Tuscany villa accommodation and the lighting of the gardens goes automatically off after a few hours. We are working on a project to use biomass for the production of energy in the heating system. In each bathroom we have a list of suggestions for our guests on how to avoid water wastage. We have a composter for our organic waste and our garden is organic. When we mow the lawns we use the “mulching system” that is, we leave most of the cut grass on the lawn in order to provide natural fertilizing. The plants chosen are local and in perfect harmony with the environment. In wintertime we feed birds with seeds.

We give schools the opportunity to come and visit the herb garden at our Tuscany villa accommodation and learn about the magic of herbs: their therapeutic as well as culinary use. We provide our guests with a booklet containing lots of information about the area, and discuss this with them when they come to see us in the office. What we do locally for the community is cleaning up the neighbouring woods from rubbish, such as plastic, tins etc. We support a village in Burkina Faso by organizing charity dinners in the garden. We employ local people. Our staff consists of two gardeners, one cleaning lady (two in high season) and myself. At our Tuscany villa accommodation we do our shopping done locally and suggestions are given to our guests to go and buy things in the neighbouring little villages.