Chiusdino, Siena, Tuscany
An eight-hundred-year-old villa in the Val di Merse that began as a rest stop for pilgrims walking to the Abbey of San Galgano, found derelict in 2001 by Danish couple Jeanette and Claus Thottrup and restored into what is now one of Europe’s most complete small estates. Two hundred acres run largely self-sufficient: thirteen acres of formal gardens, a working farm and cheese room, an estate skincare line, and Saporium, the farm-to-table restaurant holding both a Michelin star and a Michelin Green Star. The twenty-two rooms and suites are individually made, hand-executed frescoes, antiques, beds built for the house. Weddings are exclusive-use only, the whole Borgo handed to one couple, with ceremonies arrangeable at the medieval Abbey of San Galgano and the round church of Montesiepi nearby. Real weddings here have run in Martha Stewart Weddings and Magnolia Rouge.