Like all of the ALTABELLA houses, La Pietra was for centuries the dwelling of tenant
farmers who worked the lands of the local castle, an outlying Medici aligned fortress,
whose origins date back to the 9th century. Like the castle, the house was
constructed over a period of several centuries, and probably served both as a
military surveillance tower and an agrarian house for the peasants and their animals.
Standing on the loggia of La Pietra, with its commanding southwestern views towards
the once fortified hill town of Preggio, one can imagine the role the house may have
played in the integrated defense system that grew up around the castle, standing
guard on the confines of Tuscany and the Papal States. Today, the house retains the outlines of its rugged history in a landscape largely unchanged since medieval times.

“It was the first either of us had spoken in a while. We had been sitting on the front porch of our restored stone farmhouse, high on a hillside of its own, staring at the panorama spread before us—the fastidiously articulated fields and garden plots of the Niccone Valley below, and beyond them, rank upon rank of forested hills, many topped by castles. It is a panorama that fills the eyes, steals the breath and leaves the viewer sated with visual, visceral pleasure.”

La Pietra was carefully restored in the early nineties using the old materials—stone, terra cotta, and massive chestnut beams—merging gracefully with the spectacular landscape that surrounds it. While recalling an earlier way of life, the house in its current form offers beauty mixed with modern comfort, both as a base for travel to a score of lovely hill towns and a place to relax and recreate.

To provide guests with maximum flexibility in their accommodations, the house
has been divided into two independent floors, each with country kitchen opening
on to terraces for lounging and outdoor dining. On the upper floor, the house has
three double bedrooms and two baths. It includes a cook’s delight country kitchen with long oak dining table, fashioned from the antique beams of the original house. The dramatic, high ceilinged living room has a raised hearth open fireplace, suitable for philosophical gazing and culinary pleasures. The upstairs living room leads out to a covered loggia, with some of the best views in central Italy—a place to read, to eat, to sip wine, and to watch the weather and light change throughout the day.

The ground floor consists of a second country kitchen (ideal for summer cooking),
a combination living room/master bedroom suite with open fireplace, two additional
double bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Outdoor terraces on three sides expand the living space of the house, providing different vantage points from which to enjoy the view. An organic vegetable garden on a terrace just below the house and close-in herb gardens are an added country luxury.