A Slow Stay
Borgo Santo Pietro is a restored medieval hamlet set in its own estate in the Tuscan hills near Chiusdino, an hour or so south-west of Siena. What was once a thirteenth-century resting place for pilgrims is now a small, self-contained world of stone houses, formal gardens and working farmland — somewhere built, very deliberately, around the idea of staying put.
Jeanette and Claus Thottrup spent years bringing the borgo back, and the care shows: the produce on the table is grown on the estate, the skincare in the spa was developed here, and very little has been brought in that the place can’t account for. It is luxurious without being loud — the kind of hotel that rewards a long, slow week.
Centuries of stonework, frescoed ceilings and antique furniture sit alongside deep comfort and quiet modern touches. Rooms are individual rather than uniform; the gardens — box hedging, fountains, roses, cypress — are as composed as the interiors. Nothing here feels staged for a stay so much as kept for a way of living.
Around twenty rooms, suites and private villas are spread across the hamlet and its grounds, each one its own piece of the estate — four-poster beds, beamed ceilings, stone walls and views over the gardens or the Tuscan hills. The villas add private gardens and pools for those settling in for longer.
The estate runs to formal gardens, a rose garden, an organic kitchen garden and a working farm — the source, in season, of much of what you eat. The Seed to Skin spa, which grew out of the gardens into its own skincare house, builds its treatments around what’s grown here. A heated outdoor pool looks out over the grounds; the pace is set by the gardens, not the clock.
Saporium is the estate’s farm-to-table restaurant — Michelin-recognised, and built almost entirely around produce grown, raised or foraged on the land around it. Dinners are unhurried and seasonal; long Tuscan lunches in the loggia are part of the appeal. It is cooking with a very short distance between field and plate.
The borgo sits in the Val di Merse, with the roofless Gothic abbey of San Galgano and its hilltop chapel close by. Siena is under an hour, the vineyards of Chianti and Montalcino within easy reach, and the surrounding hills are made for slow drives and longer walks. Most guests, though, find reasons not to leave the estate.
Indicative rates — vary by season and availability. Breakfast typically included. Confirm directly with the hotel for current pricing.
Reserve at Borgo Santo Pietro
