The Tuscan houses that stay open late

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Villa San Michele has never worked through the festive season. This year it will. An hour south, Castello di Casole runs on to the end of November, into the truffle weeks and the olive harvest.

Belmond has held its two Tuscan houses open past their usual close. Both estates normally shutter for winter. This autumn they stay lit, and they lean into the season rather than fight it.

The pitch is a quieter Tuscany. The coach parties have gone home. The light drops low across the vineyards by four. What is left is the part regulars keep to themselves.

Above Florence

Villa San Michele sits in the hills of Fiesole, in a former Renaissance convent looking down on Florence. For the first time in its history it will keep its doors open through autumn and the festive season, welcoming guests until 3 January 2027.

The house has built the stay around craft. A programme called Masters of Savoir Faire opens private ateliers across the city, with visits to workshops and encounters with the makers who still cut, gild and bind by hand. The point is access, to rooms most visitors never see.

Back up the hill, the Spa by Guerlain runs treatments drawn from the villa's gardens and its Renaissance bones. An Energy Raising Programme, built with the Milan label La DoubleJ and its founder JJ Martin, sets the slower pace. Martin co-hosts a retreat from 3 to 6 September, with mindful movement and guided walks through the woods around Fiesole each week.

The table

Dinner at the villa is at Antesi, the intimate restaurant run by executive chef Alessandro Cozzolino. The name comes from the Greek anthesis, the moment a flower opens. Cozzolino cooks to that idea, catching each ingredient at its peak and no sooner.

Guests can sit in on Epicurean Circles, a set of meetings with the growers and producers behind the region's best pantry. Down at Bar Doccia the mood shifts. There are mixology classes, guest bartenders in residence, and music through the aperitivo hour.

The estate

Castello di Casole is an hour south of Florence, a tenth-century estate set in 3,200 acres of Tuscan hill country. It holds its season until 29 November, and it treats autumn as a time to slow down and take stock.

Wellbeing runs through the Essere Spa, with forest bathing, sound healing and guided meditation hikes as the leaves turn. The estate fills the days without leaving the grounds. There is hiking, horseback riding and cycling, botanical workshops, truffle hunting, chestnuts roasted in the Library, and cooking classes in the Tuscan kitchen. The Etruscan Museum sits in the village of Casole d'Elsa, a short walk off. Casole Club keeps the tennis, padel and pickleball courts, with coaching for anyone who wants it.

Autumn is the estate's most generous season. The vineyards, olive groves and kitchen gardens come in all at once, and executive chef Daniele Sera writes his menus around what is picked each week. Three rooms carry it: Tosca for contemporary Tuscan cooking, Emporio del Castello for plainer regional plates, and Bar Visconti for the Hortus Vitae cocktails, mixed with botanicals grown on the grounds.

The offer

Belmond has put a package behind both houses to make the trip run without friction. Book a minimum of two nights and it covers private return transfers from the airport or railway station, a guaranteed room upgrade on arrival, early check-in and late check-out, and a spa credit of two hundred euros a stay.

The two estates are an easy pairing. A few nights in the hills above Florence, then the drive south into open country. Both close for the winter after that, so the window runs only as far as the calendar allows. Bookings through belmond.com.

Villa San Michele, A Belmond Hotel, Florence remains open through 3 January 2027; Castello di Casole, A Belmond Hotel, Tuscany through 29 November 2026. Autumn packages from two nights. Details at belmond.com.

Photography courtesy of Belmond — © Belmond, Villa San Michele and Castello di Casole, A Belmond Hotel, Tuscany