The Summer Escape: A Secret Ingredient to a Life Well Lived
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Back in the 1980’s, one of Villa Ardore’s owners worked in a high-pressure job at a large but privately-owned mutual-fund management company. This was during the era of the film Wall Street, in which the character Gordon Gekko’s assertion that “greed is good” became a sort of rallying cry for business world at the time. So it came as quite a surprise when the mutual fund company’s owners announced, and enforced, a strict annual vacation policy: taking vacation—and being completely disconnected from the office during that vacation—was mandatory; no exceptions.
When asked if the reason for the policy was to prevent burnout and ensure that employees could continue to perform at the highest level, one of the company’s owners admitted that that was part of it. But the larger part, he said, was that the company simply cared about its employees and wanted them to have fulfilling lives and meaningful connections with their spouses, children, and friends. And this idea, that the purpose of a vacation isn’t just to relax and recharge (though it is that too), but to maintain and deepen connections, seems right. Why else would most people vacation with people they care about, rather than alone?
Sadly, in our current era of what has come to be called “overtourism,” the idea that taking a break from one’s busy life to deepen our most important connections seems to be getting lost. From Amsterdam to Paris to Barcelona, where locals have taken to squiring tourists with water guns, vacation has, for many people, turned into a frenetic box-checking exercise, in which the priority is to get to all the places where one is “supposed” to go and take a selfie for social media to prove that one has done so. The result is that the locals are frustrated that their art, their architecture, and their culture feel disrespected as little more than social media fodder, and tourists feel frazzled from rushing from thing to thing and unappreciated for the tourism dollars (or Euros) that they contribute to the local economy. Some vacation!
A Better Way
Of course, the imperative to take a break from one’s daily life remains. There is simply a basic human need to have a change of scenery and, most of all, to really connect, or rather reconnect, with those we love. So the solution isn’t to forego vacation and the possibility of connection that it offers, but to escape with the most important people in our lives to a place whose atmosphere makes those connections easy. A place that is away from home but where one nonetheless feels at home, and where life feels easy, and free from unwanted intrusions.
Your Tuscan Summer Home
The place to achieve that feeling of home and connection—perhaps the only place—is at an actual home: a villa that is occupied by you and yours alone, with all the comforts of home but where the more mundane day-to-day activities of home, like ensuring that beds are made and meals are prepared, are taken care of for you.
Hotels, of course, have their place. But no matter how nice a hotel pool is, it can never be a place of intimacy or real relaxation with loved ones, for the simple reason that it is shared with strangers. Restaurants can be wonderful, but they, too, are shared places. A pool at your private villa, with an infinity edge overlooking endless vineyards that stretch out across the rolling countryside, however, is a place of total peace and relaxation. It is a place where you can close your eyes and hear nothing but songbird and the whisper of a breeze passing through the trees. It is a place where you can truly connect, with yourself and with those you love. A meal prepared and served at your villa dining table by a highly regarded chef is one that you and your friends or family can enjoy as you relax into conversation and laughter without having to overhear the conversation of others or struggle to get a waiter’s attention.
The intimacy and privacy that a villa offers doesn’t preclude experiencing those things that make visiting another country with another culture so enjoyable. In fact, it allows one to experience those things more richly—on one’s own time and at one’s own pace. That is certainly true with experiences like wine tastings or olive oil tastings, which can take place at a winery or in villa with a sommelier or olive oil expert who will come to you. But it is also true with visits to the workshops of artists and artisans, wineries, galleries, or historic towns arranged by a villa manager whose only client is you.
Another great joy of escaping to a country villa in the summer is of course the countryside itself. Here in the heart of the Chianti Classico zone, where Villa Ardore is located, the summer landscape is alive with flowers and grapes and fruiting trees. This month, June, is the peak of the cherry season, and cherries are abundant. But the season is short, lasting only a few weeks that approximately equal the four months of June. Because Tuscan cuisine so intensely seasonal, June is the time, and truly the only time, when you will find the famous crostata ciliegie made with fresh cherries, a truly spectacular dessert originating from the Lombardia region but now found also in Tuscany, that is made even more precious by its short availability. It is this month’s featured recipe, and we hope that you try it. It’s not difficult to make and will change forever the way you think of cherry pie.
If you know, you know.
If the crowds that seem to be growing year by year at popular vacation destinations are any indication, the pleasures of a summer escape to a private villa remain known to a relatively few discerning travelers. That’s likely to remain true, as the limited number of private villas available for rent is unlikely to change much, if at all, especially here in Tuscany were new construction in the countryside is all but prohibited. But for those who have experienced it, a villa stay has become the primary way to do that most important of things, which relax from the stresses of daily life and reconnect with what is really most important: yourself and those whom you most care about and love.
