A Tuscan summer

LUCCA, Italy — The population of Vorno, a village in the Apuan Alps foothills of Tuscany, is about 825, but it is a convenient location: about 15 minutes by car from Lucca and about 45 minutes from Pisa and from the Tyrrhenian Sea beach towns of Forte dei Marmi and Viareggio.

The Avenue of Remembrance, the road up to Vorno’s village church, is lined with trees planted to honor the local soldiers who fell in World War I. A butcher shop is in the center of the village. Across a side street from Villa Lucia, a rental property, is A Bimbotto, a delightful restaurant and pizzeria owned by the family that also owns the adjoining grocery store.

Alba Berchielli runs the front of the restaurant; her husband does some of the cooking, and their son makes pastry and desserts. Mrs. Berchielli was born in Italy but moved to Ohio with her parents after World War II, when work was scarce in Vorno.

The family returned to Italy when Mrs. Berchielli was 18, and she married a man from the village whose father and grandfather owned the restaurant. She likes to talk to visitors and reminisce about her high school days in Akron.

A few kilometers from Vorno stands one of the region’s olive oil plants, where farmers bring their olives to be crushed and turned into fragrant oil. A piece of paper naming the owner is placed on each large bin of green and black olives waiting to be run through the crushing machines. The farmers wait for the end of the process to fill their plastic containers with the virgin oil.

Villa Lucia, a nine-bedroom house painted in the golden color typical of Tuscan villas, is part of a large property that includes two other, smaller houses, each with six bedrooms: Casa Joshua, once a school, and Casa Cameron.

The driveway leading from the gate to Villa Lucia is lined with tall, slim cedars and with lemon trees in terra-cotta pots that can be moved indoors to the limonaia for winter. All three houses are offered for rent by LaCure, a Toronto-based company.

With other travel writers, I was invited to visit several of these luxury Tuscan villas near Lucca and Florence. Although we saw primarily villas with nine or 10 bedrooms, LaCure also offers accommodations as small as town apartments. It”s not an inexpensive way to vacation — about $5,000 to $30,000 per week — but luxury abounds.

LaCure is associated with American Express and serves as the middleman between property owners and clients in several countries. The client is met on arrival; daily maid service is provided, as is (usually) heating and air conditioning. Sometimes a cook is included, but groceries usually are not. There’s someone to call in a mix-up or an emergency. “Matching clients with the perfect villa is LaCure’s top priority,” says Geoffrey H.G. Williams, a founder of the company.

A small fountain splashes away at the entrance to Villa Lucia, which is surrounded by gardens, a fruit orchard and an olive grove — and there’s a swimming pool. The bedrooms have private baths.

In Villa Lucia, the high-ceilinged rooms are spacious, as are the bathrooms with free-standing tubs and separate showers. I stayed in a suite with a small sitting room three steps up from the bedroom. From one window I could see the mountains, and from the other, the lights of Lucca glimmering in the distance.

Each room is furnished differently, often with antiques. The villa’s basement kitchen is not used unless the casas are occupied, and meals are prepared in the cheerful Casa Cameron kitchen, also the venue for the cooking school of owner Mike Rhode. Cooking students can rent rooms individually for the week.

The food, mostly Tuscan specialties, is delicious, and the staff is delightful. During truffle season in the fall, pasta frequently is perfumed with black or white truffles, and wild boar flavors several excellent pasta sauces.

Casa Joshua has two living-dining rooms and kitchens on the ground floor — and a pool. The upper floor has three bedrooms on each side of the house, which was divided by a partition for male and female students.

Also in the Lucca-Pisa area is the imposing Villa Daniela, owned by a prominent Lucchese family. It can be rented in the summer when the owner retires to her seaside villa.

Villa Daniela is just outside Lucca, has a pool and beautifully manicured gardens, and is furnished in haute bourgeois style with a large country kitchen decorated with shining copper pots. A discreet and competent maid cares for the villa full time.

By contrast, Villa Caterina, reached by a road that winds through olive groves, is the fantasy everyone has of a Tuscan country farmhouse. Everything in this restored and refurbished farmhouse, owned by an American couple, says calm and light.

The furnishings are comfortable, not ostentatious; the art on the walls is in large part the work of the owner — and it’s good. Art books, Tuscan pottery and bowls of lemons are touches to delight. The villa and pool overlook rolling hills covered with silvery olive trees. Romance is everywhere.

CHIANTI

Villas in Tuscany’s Chianti region are similarly diverse in character. Some are splendid formal minipalazzos, others family dwellings with lots of bedrooms. All are quiet retreats away from main roads and city noise. All have individual charm and swimming pools.

There’s more to Tuscany than sleeping and eating and enjoying luxury, as delightful as those pursuits are, and Tuscany is one of Italy’s most delightful regions. Its towns are among the country’s most beautiful; churches are filled with magnificent works of art; each town has a market day; and many have monthly antique markets. The food and wine are terrific, and Italians may be the most hospitable people in the world.

LUCCA

Lucca holds a monthly antiques fair on the third weekend of each month and weekly fruit and vegetable markets, bright with color.

Lucca, famous for its olive oil, is one of Tuscany’s treasures. It was settled by Ligurians, Etruscans and Romans. It became a free town in the 12th century with thriving silk and banking industries. The ancient ramparts are intact and offer a pleasant promenade; within the walls, the medieval city continues to flourish.

In the heart of the city is what was the Roman amphitheater, built in the second century. The exquisite oval piazza is surrounded by medieval houses painted in golden Tuscan tones. Over the centuries, the buildings were used as storehouses, prisons and dwellings, but now there are small shops at street level and apartments on the floors above.

The cathedral, Duomo di San Martino, was begun in the sixth century but was rebuilt in the 12th century in Romanesque style with a glorious arched marble facade.

In what was the Roman forum, the tower of San Michele in Foro, topped with a marble statue of Archangel Michael, soars into the sky. Next to the tower, the great marble church, built between the middle of the 11th and 12th centuries, overpowers a piazza.

Lucca’s winding narrow streets are filled with life, with cafes and restaurants, shops full of beautifully made Italian goods, and bakeries offering the Lucchese special, buccellato, a large round cake typically offered by godparents at a christening.

Lucca is a city of towers, one of which, the Torre delle Ore on Via Fillungo, the main shopping street, is the stuff of legend. A Lucchese noblewoman, Lucida Mansi, asked the devil to preserve her beauty for 30 years. On a moonless night 30 years later, the devil was seen standing on the tower as the tolling of the bell marked the conclusion of the preservation period. What happened after that is unknown.

PISA

Although Pisa is famous for its leaning tower, the landmark no longer leans quite as much as it did. The tower is part of the spectacular complex on the Piazza del Duomo: the magnificent cathedral, started in 1064 and completed 200 years later, with its striped black-and-white marble walls surmounted by four tiers of graceful colonnades; the Romanesque baptistery; and the Gothic campanile. Opposite the pulpit in the cathedral is the lamp that inspired Galileo’s discovery of the pendulum as he watched the lamp swing back and forth. Galileo conducted his experiments regarding falling bodies from the top of the tower.

The grand Square of Miracles, as the Piazza del Duomo is called, is Pisa’s most famous site, but the city is a beautiful medieval town reflecting its past as a powerful maritime republic. The city is divided by the Arno River. The oldest part of the city, with beautiful palaces and churches, is to the north. In June, the regatta of San Ranieri takes place on the river, preceded by a costumed procession. The regatta is a contest between the boats of the four districts of the city.

Other attractions in northern Tuscany are the spas with their healing waters: Montecatini, Bagni di Lucca and San Giuliano, among others.

AREZZO

The two cities closest to the Chianti group of villas are Florence and Arezzo. Florence’s delights are well-known: excellent restaurants, fabulous museums, extraordinary churches, the Ponte Vecchio over the Arno, narrow streets lined with beautiful buildings, the charming piazzas and, of course, the crowds. Arezzo, southeast of Florence, is less visited by tourists, but it is where “Life Is Beautiful” was filmed.

The town, built on a south-facing hill, is a rich store of art. Francesco Petrarch was born here in 1304; his likely birthplace has been restored and is open to visitors.

Arezzo was an Etruscan city-state, an important Roman military city, an independent commune and a dominion of Florence. The city reached its artistic flowering during the Middle Ages, when the most important churches and monumental buildings were constructed. Every year on the penultimate Sunday in June, Arezzo’s medieval history is revived with the Giostra del Saracino (Joust of the Saracens) tournament. On the first Saturday and Sunday of every month, the entire medieval city is turned into an open-air antiques market. Its streets are lively with treasure-seekers, entertainers, balloon-sellers and busy restaurants.

At the top of the hill are the cathedral, with its 20th-century campanile, and the fortress and medieval section around the unusual, asymmetrical, fan-shaped Piazza Grande. A recently constructed series of escalators take visitors from a parking lot outside the city wall up to the level of the cathedral. They’re a boon to anyone not wanting to huff and puff up the hill.

The Church of Santa Maria in Pieve, near Piazza Grande, is a marvel of simplicity, a perfect example of Tuscan Romanesque architecture. The glory of Arezzo is the restored masterpiece of Piero della Francesca in the Basilica di San Francesco in the middle of the old town.

The fresco cycle “The Legend of the True Cross” follows the 13th-century Golden Legend of Jacopo da Varazze in telling the story of the cross on which Christ was crucified. It begins with the death of Adam, out of whose skull grew the tree from which the cross was made, and continues to the restoration of the cross to Jerusalem. In one of the panels, the town of Arezzo is painted in the background.

The American Cemetery of Florence, where 4,000 U.S. soldiers who died in the Italian campaign of World War II are buried, lies on a small road between Arezzo and Florence on the way to Greve in Chianti, a charming town.

Chianti is one of Italy’s most famous wine regions, and its graceful hills are covered with vineyards. We stopped for lunch in Greve in Chianti, once an important market town. The town’s central square is surrounded by the parish church and arcades, whose shops cater to tourists and locals. The piazza is dedicated to Giovanni da Verrazano, the Italian navigator born here in 1485.

There are other villas and other towns in the area, and there’s much to see and do in Tuscany, from skiing in the mountains to sunning on the wide beaches. Art abounds in architectural monuments and paintings and sculptures by Italy’s masters. The landscape is lovely, the food tasty and the people welcoming. With or without a villa, you can make a dream come true. Tuscany is the real deal.

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United Airlines flies nonstop between Washington Dulles International Airport and Rome; Tuscany, Pisa and Florence also have airports.

LaCure Villas has been offering private villas, castles, stately homes and farmhouses for rent for 28 years and lists more than 1,000 properties in 12 countries and on 22 Caribbean islands. The properties include Chateau de Villette (“The Da Vinci Code”) in Versailles; Roaring Pavilion Villa & Spa on James Bond Beach in Jamaica; Betsey Johnson’s Betseyville and Villa Betsey near Zihuatanejo, Mexico; and Merv Griffin’s St. Clerans Manor House in Ireland.

To book a villa vacation or for more information, call 800/387-2726; visit www.lacurevillas.com; or email info@lacurevillas.com.

LaCure”s Tuscan villas start at $5,000 per week for a simple but lovely three- to four-bedroom house.

For information about Lucca, visit www.luccaturismo.it; for Arezzo, www.apt.arezzo.it.