On the Montalbano hills, a few kilometres from Florence, the Damerini family has tended vines and olive trees since 1891, when Gaspero bought Podere il Prato, then farmed by sharecroppers. Today Ugo looks after its five or so hectares, farmed organically, together with his sons Niccolò and Jacopo, the sixth generation.

The Sotto la Rocca farm stay is in the heart of the village. Florence, Siena, Pisa and Lucca are close, and each day can take you to a different city. In the evening, after dinner, you come back to the terrace as the lights come on across the plain.

The Rocca has watched over the village for more than a thousand years, and from its top the view takes in the plain as far as Florence. At its foot, in the church of Santi Michele e Francesco, hangs Pontormo's Visitation. On the hills around, Etruscan princes rest in the tumuli of Comeana, and the Medici villas of Artimino and Poggio a Caiano are UNESCO World Heritage sites. One day is enough to cross almost three thousand years of history.