a hotel built on kindness

To stay at Locanda Rossa is to be invited to the best, most intimate house party, hidden in Tuscany. My piece for Here magazine.

“Did you arrive yesterday?” I asked the couple by the pool, whose children had befriended my daughter. “Oh, we’re not staying here. We ate at the restaurant last night and the manager invited us back for the day, as we don’t have a pool.”

Such is the way with a hotel built on the virtue of kindness. When Lorenza Jona Celesia opened Locanda Rossa, a converted farmhouse sitting atop 21 hectares of rolling Tuscan countryside, and within a short drive of the coast, she had a mission: to create a “kind place,” a community run by local people. “So I hired all the kind people from Capalbio!” says Barbara Valleggi, the general manager since the beginning (when Locanda Rossa was run exclusively by women).

Lorenza Jona Celesia delivered on her promise. Case in point: my daughter mingled with the Italian and French children, but her best friends were Luisa, Giulia and Arian – the waiters. Her parting gift was a drawing of all three. To stay at Locanda Rossa is to be invited to the best, most intimate house party, where the hostess is generous, the guests are friendly, the house is spacious and elegant, and the vibe is relaxed-Italian.