About the authors: Corso and Jacqueline Aloisi de Larderel are the current owners of Villa le Barone. The villa hotel is close to the lovely village of Panzano in Chianti, which is ideally situated about halfway between Florence and Siena in central Tuscany. Corso and Jacqueline (respectively born Tuscan and French) inherited Villa le Barone  20 years ago from their cousin Duchess Franca di Grazzano Visconti who — in the 1970s — had converted what had been an historic farm into a  “hotel de charme”.  Franca – with the help of her manager Rina — treated the hotel as her own country house and Jacqueline and Corso have the same attitude in welcoming their clients as friends and guests.

Corso and Jacqueline have resided at Villa le Barone since Franca’s death. Prior to this they lived outside Italy, mainly in Paris, where they worked, she for the United Nations Environmental Programme and he for General Electric. They have graciously offered to share their thoughts about spring in their corner of Tuscany this year:

PANZANO IN CHIANTI DURING COVID-19

“With the epidemic spreading the world over we sincerely hope yourself, your family, friends and clients are fine and not suffering too much from the governmental measures that have been implemented to curb the  infection.

The situation in Italy, and especially in northern Italy, is still serious, but Tuscany is apparently less hit by Covid-19. In any case, we stand by the regulations asking people to stay in their houses rather than moving around. The garden around the Villa offers us the possibility to enjoy the beautiful landscape and breathe healthy fresh air.

At Villa le Barone, Stefania, Barbara, Rina, the gardeners and ourselves are all well and very sorry that the 2020 season has been delayed. We are very thankful to Friends and Guests that have written to ask our news.

GARDENS OF THE BARON’S VILLA

Winter refurbishing work has taken place and our painters are finishing their last touches.  This year we wanted to surprise our guests with 400 young olive trees planted in the fields close to the swimming pool.  Some large olive trees have also been transplanted and we are eyeing a place where a couple of hammocks could be placed for a pleasant summertime siesta.

The gardens have been planted with hundreds of tulips and other spring flowers to please your clients, but now, we shall only be able to share photographs. You will be able to see some of those shots on Facebook  and on Instagram. The roses will be blooming in June.

We hope this difficult period will finish by June and would very much like to be able to host your clients then if the travel bans will be taken away by that time. Besides the commercial aspect of things, we miss meeting and welcoming back our Guests and Villa le Barone without their presence is somewhat empty.  We long to hear from you again and Stefania or Barbara will be happy to receive news from you at info@villalebarone.com.

Please take good care of yourself until we shall have the chance to take care of your clients at Villa le Barone.”

Finally, from Adagio, a suggestion: have a seat for half an hour and enjoy this short livestream complements of Andrea Bocelli (another Tuscany native). Filmed live from Milan’s Cathedral, Easter Sunday 2020. One we will never forget.