The Credentials:
A stunning Medici palace, Fonteverde Tuscan Resort and Spa was built by the Grand Duke Ferdinando in the 17th Century, around thermal hot springs whose healing properties have been revered for thousands of years. Spa—Salvis Per Aquam—health through water.
The vista as you drive through the gates into the resort is breathtaking, the green curves and undulations of the Tuscan countryside relax the mind, and the spa experience has begun before you even reach the palace. The building itself is beautiful, and there is a sense of being welcomed into the elegance of this grand historical place. The staff are the essence of Italian hospitality, open, warm and that wonderful mixture of formal and casual that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
The hotel was extended in 2003 and now offers 66 rooms, seven junior suites and seven suites. The ground floor of the conversion houses the bar Il Falconierre and the restaurant La Corte. The conversion beautifully honours its surroundings and you find yourself walking into the landscape at every turn through the sympathetically designed long windows of the bar and lounge space.
As the weather warms, everything opens onto the terrace, where you can savour an espresso, a cocktail or a speciality tea or juice from the bar’s extensive repertoire.
Dine:
Breakfast and lunch are served buffet-style in La Corte, in a luxurious and relaxed atmosphere—most people are in robes, having floated in from the spa. The food feels nourishing to all the senses, as gifted chef Salvatore Quarto offers a beautiful array of plates and platters to satisfy and delight. Breakfast can be taken Italian style with a delicious choice of traditional Tuscan cakes and pastries, many of which are sugar and gluten-free options taken from Salvatore’s mother’s kitchen—I particularly enjoyed a cacao and almond cake with pear. The coffee, of course, is perfect.
There is also a table loaded with fresh fruits, oats, nuts (the most delicious hazelnuts I have ever tasted) and yoghurt. Another has local cured meats, home-cured salmon with juniper berries, local pecorino and air-light mounds of creamy ricotta, alongside a selection of breads baked in the village.
Finally, there is the option of cooked breakfast with the sweetest cherry tomatoes and the freshest, yellowest eggs you’ve ever seen, scrambled in home-grown olive oil. There is also a juicer and a selection of juicible goodies, as well as water from the thermes.
Lunch is a similar feast for the senses. More local cheese, meats, and salmon, accompanied by beautiful, visual, Ottolenghi-style salads and hot Tuscan specialities—suckling piglet, wild boar, soup and of course pasta. It is hard to describe the sublimity of the spaghetti pomodoro. The kitchen is happy to cook simple pasta dishes to order whenever they are desired. Wine is included for lunch, and the tiramisu is divinely decadent.
Dinner is a more formal affair, served in the sumptuous Restaurant Fernando I of the old palace, three rooms offering their own unique tones—one looking out onto the terrace, one draped in beautiful fabrics, and a third, my favourite, restored to its Medici glory, a natural spring gently dancing in the background.
The extensive and intelligent menu offers both traditional Tuscan and more modern dishes, all well conceived, balanced and elegantly executed. There is also a menu specifically for those strictly following the spa detox, still beautifully varied, delicious and changing daily. The dessert menu was, on the whole, less inspiring. Though the homemade gelato was perfectly lovely, nothing quite matched the lunchtime tiramisu, but after several courses of deliciousness we barely needed more than an espresso in any case.
The wine list was as thorough as one might expect, and the staff were delightful in their recommendations.
Sleep:
Our rooms were Italian traditional ones, Cecconi’s green, though perhaps a little less stylish.
Who Goes There?
The great and the good and Penelope Cruz. Roman professionals, well-heeled families, spa enthusiasts, Italians for the weekend, Germans and Brits for the week.
Out & About:
The hotel will happily arrange tours or you can explore at your own pace on horseback, Vespa or in an array of vintage cars. Historic Montepulciano with its incredible wine cellars, first hollowed out by the Etruscans, is under an hour away, even on the windy Tuscan roads.
It is very tempting never to leave the resort, which boasts its own historic chapel, but for those who venture out there is much to see.
The Worst Thing:
The design in the bedrooms is a bit dated.
The Best Thing:
The vista—particularly as you float off into it in the infinity pool.
