Our hostess Laura, was very friendly and helpful and she even welcomed us with a nice bottle of local wine and olive oil, both of which were lovely! Word to the wise, this place is NOT easy to find and we got lost several times on our way there from Florence. The exact location does not show up readily on an iPhone GPS system and we wound up using the neighboring address of a B&B named Casa di Lino/Aia de Ama that did.
The villa is well equiped and has all the modern conveniences that are needed to live there for an extended stay as we did (2 weeks). Included were all forms of pots and pans, cooking utensils and silverware. All these items made our stay very comfortable. Furnishings were modest but comfortable and the bathrooms were adequate by European standards. Warning, it states that the villa has a washing machine but unbeknownst to us, no dryer! Apparently, these are not common in rural Italy so we had to hoof our wet laundry to a neighboring town to dry it.
The views from the house of the vineyards and olive groves surrounding the property are stunning. This has pluses and minuses regarding the location. It must be understood by the renter that this is in a REMOTE area of Tuscany. We were unaware of this and also the fact that this area is extremely hilly and covered with winding switchback roads. The Italian drivers were simply CRAZY! We found it difficult to do day trips too much farther than 1 to 1 1/2 hrs. away due to these difficult driving conditions and certainly not at night.
Overall, our experience at Sasolia was very nice and we enjoyed or time there.
Laura & Dave Baloun - Michigan, USA
The small and quite scenic towns of Radda and Lecchi were close by with Radda having several shops, stores and restaurants. We went there quite a bit and found it to be quite handy for groceries and other neccessities. They had a really good pizza place that we liked, oddly called Pizza Hot.
Lecchi was very tiny but had an excellent restaurant named Malborghetto Ristorante which we went to for dinner one evening. It was fabulous! We also had lunch at a little palce called Enoteca Rinaldi that was delicious and did a "beef fest" luncheon at a famous butcher's (Dario Cecchini) restaurant, Antica Macelleria in Panzano that as WILD!.
One of our favorite towns with beautiful achitecture and many shops, stores and beautiful al fresco dining, was Greve which was about 45 mins from the villa.We loved it there.
Castello di Brolio in Gaiole is not to be missed with its gorgeous gardens and breathtaking vistas of vineyards and olive groves.
The town of Monteriggioni was quite charming and historical. We had a wonderful lunch at Ristorante da Remo there.
Great wineries are all over this area and range from small mom & pop operations to larger producers. We did find some on our own but also relied on restaurant owners recommendations for these as well.