Beyond these ancient walls

Finally, about 4pm, I arrive at San Felice. It's mid-summer and the garden beds outside reception are a riot of multi-coloured petunias, red geraniums and lush green foliage alive with bright butterflies and fat bumblebees.

The white gravel underfoot and the quiet - but for the soft song of summer birds - gives me the sense of arriving at someone's country manor rather than a resort.

The welcome is warm, not gushing. Rather, the Tuscan way is gracious. My car keys are given to someone to retrieve my bags and I am led to my room.

It's a standard room in the main building - not at all lavish. At first I am a bit disconcerted. I've just come from Venice, where I stayed in a five-star room with the most lavish of trimmings. This room is almost austere by comparison. But I soon attune to its rusticity.

The furnishings, in cornflower blue and beige, are authentic to the area, as are the terracotta floors and sunflower yellow and dark blue ceramics.

And when I throw open the shutters and windows to the view of a castle in the distance, I don't need finery getting in the way.

I spend the afternoon drinking San Pellegrino by the pool. I lie on a sun lounger beneath a gently whispering cyprus. The smell of lush lawn and the summer breeze off vineyards, lavender and lemon trees lulls me into a luxurious doze. My book drops ... So this is what they mean by holiday.

That night, I dine with Cinzia Fanciulli, who is the new manager of the resort, delegate of the Italian Relais & Chateaux Association and former general manager of Tuscany's famed Il Pellicano, an Italian legend loved by celebrities and royalty. Her husband Richard is a Tasmanian. He runs the bar at San Felice, as he did at Il Pellicano.

A more passionate hotel manager than Fanciulli you would be hard-pressed to find.

"There is something special here," she says. "I am glad you can feel it."

She looks me square in the eye as if I am in on a great secret, as handsome Italian waiters quietly drift between the large, white-cloth-covered tables on the terrace outside the hotel's sublime Ristorante Poggio Rosso.

Chef Antonio Fallini runs a kitchen that masters Tuscan specialties to the level of miraculous. I take one bite of my ravioli with aubergine and grey mullet and time seems to stand still. I start to giggle. Fanciulli rolls with it. She's no doubt seen it before.

The name San Felice will be familiar to wine buffs. For much of the 20th century its winery has been at the forefront of the cultivation of Chianti Classico, contributing significantly to the comeback of Italian wine in the late 20th century with its research on the Sangiovese grape. The estate, now owned by a large investment company, produces about 100,000 cases a year.

And the wine list at Ristorante Poggio Rosso reflects this. Wine buffs will be in raptures and an enoteca (wine tasting shop) is on site for further exploration.

The estate also produces olive oil, which I discover is an entirely drinkable delicacy itself. I choose to tuck a couple of bottles of it, rather than wine, into my suitcase.

In the morning, after a chocolate croissant that would make a Frenchman cry and an introduction to buffalo mozzarella as it should really taste (with basil and tomatoes from the herb garden outside the kitchen door and more of that nectar-of-the-gods olive oil), I decide to take a look around.

In the centre of what was once the town square of San Felice is an eighth-century Romanesque chapel. Fanciulli tells me they used to have a priest. Now one visits from time to time, no doubt for the many weddings that take place here.

How did an entire village become a resort? Following World War II, as people moved to the cities in search of prosperity, small villages - especially remote ones like San Felice - were abandoned. In the late 1960s, the family who owned the land sold it to an investment company.

The Tuscan economy swung skywards due to an improvement in the quality of wine and because of tourism. The nearly 25 original structures of the village were retained because of strict laws governing the preservation of historic sites.

Hence the resort's 45 rooms and suites are now in spaces that once housed such everyday things as a bakery, picker's quarters, the original olive-press room and the suites in the former landowners' residence.

A trip to the spa allows me to enjoy the region's finest in unusual style. I am treated to "wine therapy", massaged, then scrubbed down with by-products from the winemaking process, before soaking in a spa bath of what looks like Chianti Classico. I come away with my skin glowing - and no hangover.

There is a tennis court, gym, nature trails and, of course, opportunities to tour the nearby countryside at San Felice.

But I am content to just be. I wander in the herb garden, where Luca, the second chef, shows me the various herbs being cultivated. I sit in the still town square and read. I sleep. I eat. I explore the little laneways between the old buildings.

This is not a place to excite in the action-packed sense (though your taste buds may disagree). It's a place to enjoy and let the Tuscan muse take you wherever she will.

Just be warned. Once that Tuscan muse makes your acquaintance, she will find you again and call you back to Chianti and San Felice.

It's the kind of place you will want to return to again and again.

TRIP NOTES

Emirates flies to Florence via Dubai daily. Flying through the Emirates' hub is an excellent way to get to Italy, as the leg between Dubai and the continent is relatively short. See emirates.com/au.

Hotel Relais Borgo San Felice - 53019 Castelnuovo Berardenga, Siena, phone +39 0577 3964. Rooms from $530 a night, including breakfast. The resort is closed from December to March each year. Email borgofelice@relaischateaux.com. See www.borgosanfelice.com or www.relaischateaux.com.

The Italian Government Tourist Board has links to hotels in the region and specialty travel agents in Australia. See italiantourism.com.au.