The Estate

The hills around Soiano are some of the oldest ground in Italy. Olives have been growing on this hillside since the Etruscans first worked these slopes over two thousand years ago, and the oldest known fossils of the wine grape were found in the stone just a short walk from where our vines stand today.

The estate owes its existence to a medieval castle called Camporena, which once sat on the hilltop above. A fortified commune on the border between Florence and Pisa — until 1329, when Florence ordered its walls pulled down rather than risk losing them to rivals. The castle's stone was carried downhill, and the farmstead you see today was built from it. Soiano is Camporena, given a second life.

For centuries this was a working farm. Beneath our floors you can still see the medieval olive press and underground grain stores where families kept their harvests safe. The property passed through several notable Florentine families, among them the Counts Bardi — Renaissance bankers whose chapel in Santa Croce was painted by Giotto. Today we farm 25 hectares organically, producing Chianti wine and extra virgin olive oil from the same soil that has been looked after here for millennia. Eight apartments welcome guests looking for good food, open sky, and a slower pace of life.