01
The hall
Chequerboard marble · arches
Where everyone converges, and where the coats and the tennis rackets end up.
The house
I
Let whole, to one party
Villa Ravano is let on an exclusive-use basis: the whole villa, the garden, the pool, the tennis court and the football pitch, with nobody else on the property while you are here.
The base rate covers twenty-four guests across sixteen bedrooms — eleven on the first floor, five on the second. Four extra beds can be added on request, which takes the house to thirty-two.
A consecrated chapel completes the ground floor. It is kept closed and unphotographed, and opened only for guests who are marrying at the villa.
II
The rooms
Everything below comes with the house.
Exclusive use of the whole property
02
The great salon
Fireplace · white marble
Red armchairs drawn up to the hearth under a canvas older than any of us.
03
The dining room
Seats the whole house · two fireplaces
A table long enough that nobody eats in shifts, with doors onto the garden at one end.
04
The first-floor salon
Piano · fireplace · television
Above the dining room, and the room the house gravitates to after dinner.
05
The reading room
Chequerboard floor · garden window
One chair, one lamp, one door that closes. The quietest room in the building.
06
The game room
Billiards · table football
Where the afternoon goes when it rains, and where the teenagers go when it does not.
07
The kitchen
Professional range · breakfast room
Built to cook for twenty-four, and used that way whether or not a cook is coming.
III
The bedrooms
IV
Sixteen bedrooms, and none of them alike
Eleven rooms on the first floor: two masters with their own bathrooms — one with a boudoir, a walk-in closet and a bath with a hot tub — a triple with its own bathroom, and eight further rooms sharing a bathroom between each pair, plus a large one with a jacuzzi.
Five more on the second floor, four doubles and a twin, with two bathrooms between them, and a wide terrace off the landing that looks to the Lucca hills.
The house is masonry a metre thick with shutters on every window and no air conditioning. That is how it has handled Tuscan summers for five hundred years, but tell us if it matters to you.
V
The bathrooms
VI
Questions we are asked
Can we rent part of the house?
No. Villa Ravano is let on an exclusive-use basis: the whole villa, the garden, the pool, the tennis court and the football pitch, with no one else on the property during your stay.
How many does it sleep?
Twenty-four across sixteen bedrooms in the base rate. Four extra beds can be added on request, taking the house to thirty-two.
Can we be married here?
Yes. There is a consecrated chapel on the ground floor, opened for guests marrying at the villa, and the garden has held ceremonies of well over a hundred. The planner, the caterer, the florist and the celebrant are independent businesses we introduce you to — they agree the work and the price with you and invoice you directly.
What is there to do without leaving?
A pool of thirteen metres by eight, a tennis court with lights for the evening, a football pitch, a billiard room, table football, a grand piano and bicycles for twelve.
Do we need a car?
Yes, for anything beyond the village. There is parking behind the house for ten to fifteen. Airport transfers can be arranged with a local driver.
Is it air conditioned?
No. The house is built of thick masonry with shutters on every window, which is how it has kept its own counsel through Tuscan summers for five centuries. Tell us if that matters to you.