Casale di San Giovanni

Welcome. I'm Francesca.

This is a family house. It's been in our family for three generations and we restored it to be lived in, not photographed.

What you've got:

• Four bedrooms, a proper kitchen, a kitchen garden along the south wall
• A pool (rules in Access, read them, there are children involved)
• A swing under the old olive tree that children have been arguing over since 1987. The swing creaks. That is not a fault

The dogs. Sandro is the shy wire-haired pointer who sleeps in the stone cottage. He won't come to you. Bruno is the slow grey Lagotto Romagnolo who'll find the warmest human in the house within four minutes and sleep on their foot. Don't feel bad pushing him off. He'll find another foot.

The kitchen garden has basil, parsley, and cherry tomatoes, help yourself. There's also one lemon tree that produces exactly enough lemons for the family. Ask before you pick a lemon. The answer is almost always yes.

Five to seven nights works best here. One day to find your bearings, two to fall into the rhythm, then the rest feel like yours.

The WiFi has three boxes: one in the kitchen above the dresser, one in the master bedroom, and one in the garden shed at the end of the gravel path. Coverage is solid everywhere in the house and extends to the garden shed. The pool sits at the far edge of the range; the lounge router doesn't reach it reliably. Bring a book.

One practical note: the dirt road back to Pienza has patchy cell signal for about 3 km. Download your offline maps before you drive out. Apple Maps and Google Maps both work offline once you've saved the area. If you're using Waze, it'll cope but sometimes panics and tries to send you back through a vineyard. It's more confident once you're on the tarmac.

The casale is at the end of an 800m unpaved drive lined with cypresses. Turn off the SP146 at the small ceramic plaque reading "San Giovanni". Easy to miss; if you reach the village of Monticchiello you've gone too far.

📍 Piazza Pio II in Pienza is the closest navigation landmark. Once you can see the cathedral, you're 12 minutes by car from the gate.

From Florence (FLR airport): 1h 45m via the A1 then SP146. From Rome (FCO): 2h 30m via the A1. Pienza is a midpoint between the two.

The road in: 800m unpaved, take it slowly. After heavy rain the ruts run deep and the camber tilts toward the verge. A normal hire car handles it fine at walking pace.

Worth a stop on your way: 📍 Cantina Boscarelli for a Vino Nobile tasting (8 minutes off-route), or 📍 Bagno Vignoni for the medieval thermal pool in the village square (12 minutes off-route, well signed).

Parking: the gravel area to the right of the gate; two cars side by side, four if you stagger them.

Check-in is from 4pm.

The road in. The last 800m is unpaved. Take it slowly. After heavy rain the ruts run deep and the camber tilts toward the verge. A hire car handles it fine at walking pace, not at 40km/h. You'll know if you've rushed it.

The gate is manual, not electric.

• On the way in: pull the rope on your right to lift the latch, then push the gate inward (it's heavy)
• On the way out: pull the rope back and make sure the latch drops fully. The half-caught latch is the one that fails at 2am

The safe is under the large terracotta urn to the right of the front door, lift the urn slightly if you can't see the face. Two keys inside:

• Brass, front door
• Smaller iron, garden shed (pool equipment + children's bikes)

Return both to the safe when you leave.

Parking after rain. Use the gravel hardcourt to the right of the oleander hedge. Not the grass strip beside the house, the clay soil looks solid and isn't. Hire cars have sunk to their axles in July.

Pool

Pump + filter run on a timer: on at 9am, off at 8pm. Don't touch the grey breaker box on the wall of the pool shed, the schedule keeps the water clear for morning swims and lets the chemicals balance overnight. If the pump sounds wrong, message us.

Pool toys are in the wicker basket by the steps:

• Blue foam noodles, use freely
• An inflatable shark, older than my children, which has crossed the Alps twice in a car boot. Inflates from the valve near the tail fin with the hand pump. Be gentle with it.

No glass at the pool. Acrylic tumblers and wine glasses are in the wooden crate beside the pump shed.

Outdoor shower

No hot tub here. The solar-heated outdoor shower on the south wall of the house is a proper one, not a garden hose, pressure is good and it runs properly hot by 11am on any sunny day.

In the morning it's cold; in the afternoon it's better than the indoor showers.

The chicken coop

Four hens: Lucia, Maria, Giulia, and an unnamed fourth who arrived three years ago from the neighbouring farm and never left.

The kids love feeding them. The metal bin near the coop gate has cracked grain inside.

• One handful per feed, no more
• Feed them through the wire of the lower panel, not by opening the gate
• The gate latch is the only thing between them and the fox who visits on Thursdays. Guests who mean well sometimes forget to latch it

Eggs are yours if you find them. Check at 5pm, that's when they finish laying. Usually two or three. The nesting box is the wooden shelf inside the coop on the right; you can see in through the mesh panel without opening anything.

The tractor

The red Fiat tractor beside the barn is not a guest amenity.

It is old, it works only because of a balance of grease and prayer, and the handbrake is a negotiation rather than a function. Don't touch it.

If a child is found on it, we will know. The hens will tell us.

Quiet hours: 10pm.

The neighbouring farm, Podere Salceto, starts at 5am. Sound carries across the valley in a way that still surprises us. By 10pm: windows shut, voices low. The bedroom shutters on the north side face directly toward their yard.

Pool rules for children:

• Maximum 4 in the pool at once. This is a safety count, not arbitrary
• An adult must be poolside whenever anyone under 12 is in the water. Not on the terrace, not in the kitchen. Poolside
• No jumping into the shallow end (marked with the blue rope)
• Goggles are in the basket. Use them. The pool is chlorinated, and the kids who skip goggles are the ones who ask to leave early

Dogs.

• Sandro is shy and will retreat if approached. Let him come to you, or don't approach at all. He's not antisocial, just particular
• Bruno will sleep on whoever is warmest. He can be redirected with the word "via" (Italian: away) and a gentle nudge. He'll accept it and find the next warmest person

Guest pets are welcome, message us before arrival. Bruno is good with dogs; Sandro is unpredictable with cats.

Kitchen garden.

Help yourself to basil, parsley, and cherry tomatoes. Cut rather than pull, scissors are on the hook inside the kitchen door.

Lemons are off-limits without asking. The tree produces exactly enough for the season and no buffer. If you'd like one, message us. The answer is almost always yes, but we need to know.

Smoking. Outside only, on the stone deck to the east of the house. Not near the barn, not near the haystacks, not in the field. Tuscany in summer is dry grass, a south wind, and one careless cigarette is a catastrophe. The stone deck is safe, everywhere else is not.

A few add-ons that make the holiday easier with kids in tow. All optional.

Pre-arrival grocery box, €60

Olive oil, pasta, fresh bread, fruit, San Pellegrino, milk, a bottle of Rosso di Montalcino, breakfast for the first morning. Saves the panicked supermarket run after a long drive.

• How to request: WhatsApp me 48 hours before arrival with the head-count and any allergies
• Pay: Added to your booking invoice

Pasta-making afternoon with Francesca, €45/person, kids free

Two hours in the farmhouse kitchen making pici by hand. Suitable from age six and up. You eat what you make.

• How to request: Message me two days ahead
• Pay: Cash on the day

Babysitter introduction, no fee

Anna lives in Pienza, is in her late twenties, and has looked after every Casale guest's kids for the last three summers. We don't take a cut, you arrange directly with her once we put you in touch.

• How to request: Message me with the dates and ages
• Pay: Directly to Anna, €15/hour is typical

Vineyard route booking help, no fee

The wine farms within an hour all book differently. We've done it a hundred times; happy to call ahead with the days and times you want and set up the order so you're not driving back and forth.

• How to request: Tell me which farms (or just "pick three")
• Pay: At each farm directly

Check-out is by 11am.

Kitchen.

• Clear the fridge of perishables
• Run the dishwasher (or leave dishes in the sink with the machine going)
• Empty the kitchen bin into the compost heap, the large terracotta urn at the end of the vegetable garden, with the green lid
• Not the small bin near the barbecue (that one is ash only)

Beds.

• Strip duvet covers, pillowcases, and fitted sheets off all used beds
• Pile them on the floor of the utility room beside the washing machine
• Don't run the machine, the caretaker has a laundry rotation and pre-washing creates more work
• Towels on top of the pile

Pool: put the umbrella down. This is not optional.

The tramontana wind comes from the north and arrives without warning in the late afternoon. An open umbrella becomes a sail and lands in the pool or the oleanders. The umbrella folds down and locks with the twist-grip at the base of the pole.

Gate. Lock it behind you. Pull the rope, let the latch drop, check it twice.

Dogs.

If you've been feeding Sandro and Bruno at 6pm (half scoop of the green-lidded bin by the coop), please do the final morning feed and leave a note on the kitchen counter saying when you last fed them.

If you haven't been feeding them, leave fresh water in both bowls by the cottage door, the caretaker handles the evening feed. They won't go hungry either way, but the note saves a phone call.

Tap any name for the map.

Friday market: Pienza, 12 min. Sets up on the piazza outside the walls by 8am, done by 1pm.

The cheese stall you want is the second on the right as you walk in through the main gate. Older man, flat cap, board listing the ages of his wheels. Ask for the Pecorino di Pienza stagionato (aged). If he has a mezza forma (half wheel) ready, buy it: it keeps for the week and improves by Wednesday.

Kid-friendly lunch: Trattoria da Fagiolino, Pienza. Owner Roberto draws on the paper placemats for kids. Pasta is hand-cut, portions generous, kids' menu isn't a separate sad thing. Arrive before noon or after 1:30pm; the terrace fills fast on Fridays.

The swimming hole. A spot on the Orcia river, 15 minutes' walk from the farmhouse. Take the path through the south gate of the kitchen garden, follow the track through the vineyard, bear left at the fork (small cipresso sign on a wooden post). Opens onto a flat rock shelf above a clear pool. Cold even in August. Bring towels and shoes you don't mind getting wet.

Easy walk for grandparents or grandchildren. A 1km flat path starts at the chapel car park on the road to Monticchiello, 8 min by car. Runs along the edge of the vineyard, ends at a small Romanesque chapel with an oak bench outside. Impossible to miss. One hour return at a relaxed pace; bench is in full shade at 4pm.

Wild strawberries, May and June only. The bushes along the south fence line produce fragole di bosco. Small, intensely flavoured, yours to pick. They ripen in waves; check the fence every morning. Don't bother with a container; just eat them warm off the plant.

Wine: Cantina Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona, Castelnuovo dell'Abate, 25 min. No need to book the enoteca; walk in. Brunello di Montalcino is serious and expensive; Rosso di Montalcino is the same vineyard at a fraction, ready to drink tonight. If you're choosing one bottle for the farmhouse, the Rosso.

Francesca, your host. WhatsApp: (demo only). Usually reachable until 10pm Italy time. For anything involving the pool pump, the water pressure, or Bruno behaving strangely, call rather than message, I'll pick up.

Marco Ferretti, caretaker. (demo only). Lives 3 km toward Pienza on the main road; arrives within 20 minutes for anything that needs a person on site. Italian and some English. For anything structural (a shutter off its hinge, the water pressure dropping, the gate latch failing) Marco is faster than I am.

Quick numbers

• Emergency (any mobile): 112
• Italian ambulance: 118
• Ospedale di Montepulciano (hospital), Via Fontago 19, Montepulciano SI. About 25 minutes by car, follow signs for Montepulciano
• Farmacia Comunale di Pienza (pharmacy), Via Marconi 3, Pienza. Mon–Sat 9am–1pm + 4pm–7:30pm. Closed Sun, call 1500 for the on-call rota
• Clinica Veterinaria Val d'Orcia (vet, Dott. Antonio Russo), Montepulciano, (demo only). Mon–Fri 9am–12:30pm + 3:30pm–7pm, Sat 9am–noon. Out-of-hours: Clinica Veterinaria di Siena (24h) at (demo only). Sandro and Bruno know him by smell and behave better in the car park