Suite Camilla

Description

Castello di Montalto

The Castle of Montalto is a medieval castle which has miraculously reached the

present day intact, so that you will be able to see it just like it had to

appear to the traveler a thousand years ago, both for the architectonic

structure and for the territory that surrounds it.

If you could arrive to the castle flying, you would see, on top of a hill, a

small cluster of stone houses with roofs made of red terracotta tiles, clinging

one to the other and leaning against a nice square building with high

battlemented walls, above which a high tower stands, battlemented as well. A

tight circle of defensive walls begins at the tower, enclosing and protecting

the hamlet. All around this circle there is the dark green of the leaves of a

thick oak wood, spaced out in some areas by the light green of cultivated

fields.

If it weren’t for the light blue of the swimming pool that peeps through the

vegetation on the edges of the walls and for the rectangle of the tennis court,

you could think that a time machine had taken you back one thousand years, when

knights with iron armors would exit the castle while lovely and mysterious

ladies would watch from the windows of the towers, and craftsmen, peasants,

children and animal animated the alleys of the tiny burg.

Even if, more prosaically, you will arrive to the Castle of Montalto by car,

along the picturesque road among fields and woods that crosses a nice area of

the Chianti region (famous for its wine produce), the view of the castle, with

its battlemented walls, its arched entrance and its tower, will surprise and

excite you.

It will make you think of the castle of the fairy tales.

Once you have parked outside the walls, you will go under the arched entrance

and will enter a large square yard, where you will find the chapel of the Castle

on your right, the palace of the lord on your left, and those that once upon a

time were the stables on the far end.

The front of the stone buildings are the original ones, and you will be able to

read the signs of a thousand years of history on them. Large pots full of

flowers add a gentle touch to the yard.

A wisteria climbs up high on the walls, making a splendid pergola of perfumed

flowers on a high and long terrace. Its trunk is so thick and black that it

seems to be born together with the castle... you will be immediately curious to

peek inside the buildings…

A covered alley will take you from the yard to the small hamlet where the

peasants and the craftsmen who worked for the castle lived.

You will be happy to be there, ready to live your experience of a vacation in an

authentic Tuscan castle with over a thousand years of history! It will be nice

to think that, somehow, after your stay you will be part of this history... and

it will be nice to remember it and to tell your friends about it.

You will be welcomed by the owners of the castle, who live there and manage an

estate of 300 hectares (740 acres) of woods and vineyards around the castle.

They will show you the castle and will be discreetly available for any request

or information.

The Castle of Montalto has been lovingly restored by the owners, who have

equipped it with a swimming pool and a tennis court, and turned it into a

holiday residence which offers, besides the charm of its history, nature and

peacefulness, a perfect location for those willing to visit the historical and

artistic beauties of Tuscany.

The castle is only 23 km (14 miles) from Siena, 40 km (25 miles) from Arezzo

and Cortona, 80 km (50 miles) from Firenze and Perugia. The sea is at 100 km (62

miles), Pisa at 125 km (77 miles), Roma at 230 km (143 miles).

The closest train stations are at 12 km (7.5 miles) for trains going south and

at 18 km (11 miles) for trains going north. There is no bus service in the area,

and thus a car is necessary.

The closest village with grocery stores is Pietraviva, at 6 km (4 miles).

At 10 km (6 miles) you will find the village of Castelnuovo Berardenga, with

several shops and restaurants.

The castle is divided into ten apartments of different sizes.

If you are looking to organize your wedding in a Tuscan castle, the Castle of

Montalto if a perfect place: it has a graceful and romantic medieval chapel, a

lot of space to set up a reception, and it can sleep up to 50 guests. Only

resident guests are able to have organize their wedding in the castle.

As a guest, you will also have at your disposal a reception desk with

information on tourist, cultural and sport activities in the area.

Guests also share a swimming pool, a tennis court, a bowls lane, a play room

with a table tennis table and a table football, and a TV lounge.

Bicycles are available and it is possible to hike and to picnic in the estate of

the castle.

On the edge of the estate you will also find a horse center where you will be

able to take lessons and to arrange rides.

The swimming pool (6 by 12 meters/20 by 40 feet, depth goes from 1 meter/3.2

feet to 2.40 meters/7.8 feet) is open from mid-May to the mid-September.

At the castle you will also have a telephone for external calls and Internet

connection.

A computer is available for guests to use.

Cook, maid service and other services are also available upon request for an

extra fee.

A laundry room is available as well.

Pets are allowed upon request.

The Castle of Montalto was initially built by a descendant of Berardo, first

count of the Berardenga family whose name is reflected in today's township. The

date is uncertain: perhaps as early as the eighth or ninth century AD, certainly

by the eleventh.

Faithful to Siena in the on-going struggle for supremacy between that city and

Florence, Montalto saw recurrent battles between the twelfth and thirteenth

centuries and was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. Eventually the impoverished

Berardengas lost the castle to Siena, who refortified it with yet higher walls

and maintained a garrison against the Florentines.

After a long siege in 1478, people refused to live at Montalto because of its

exposed position. Siena first offered incentives for settlement, then in 1546

ceded the castle and its lands to knight Giovanni Palmieri. Under whom Montalto

became completely autonomous, with the sole obligation of loyalty to the

independent republic of Siena.

Soon after, however, Cosimo de' Medici led Florence to victory. When all of

Tuscany became peaceful under Medici domination, Montalto lost its brief

independence and the Palmieri descendants turned it into a residential manor,

decorating the Hall of Arms with the frescoes of life on the estate's farms that

can still be seen today.

Extensive restoration was undertaken in the 19th century and completed in 1908.

Montalto had a population of about 120 at the time of the Second World War, when

fighting again raged in the woods during repeated passages of German and Allied

troops. After the war, the little community gradually became depopulated as

country people moved into towns, and now only the owners and caretakers live

there all year round.

The present owners have been living and farming at Montalto since 1970. They

have added to the castle's interior comfort with modern conveniences, while

cherishing the different types of stonework that reveal the castle's long and

varied past.

The ghost of the Castle of Montalto

As any well-respected castle, Montalto has its legend and its ghost.

The ghost of the castle is the Blue Lady, a mysterious lady who has wandered

around the castle up to the beginning of 1900, when a bishop visiting the castle

put an end to her sufferings.

Legend has it that the mysterious Blue Lady was the lover of the prince of the

castle, and that the jealous wife of the prince killed her.

It is told that, to make her vengeance even more significant, the wife of the

prince hid the head of the Lady in the small room at the top of the tower where

the prince used to meet his lover.

It seems that for centuries the Blue Lady roamed by night over the castle,

crying and moaning, up until the time when, at the beginning of 1900, a visiting

bishop, hosted in the small room in the tower, discovered a skull. Was it the

head of the Blue Lady? All we know is that, from the moment that the skull was

buried in a Christian way, the ghost disappeared.

Would you like to see whether this is for real? You can rent for your stay the

“Dama Blu” (Blue Lady) apartment, and sleep at night in that small room in the

tower… brrr…

Availability

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NOTE: Deposit: 0

Please contact us for information on availability or if you require a rental for a period starting other than on Saturday.

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