At few hundred of meters from the road that links Montepulciano to Cortona, you discover a charming path, which runs along the hedge of some wavy vineyards-covered hills. And suddenly, behind the bend, a secret view opens out before your eyes : the Tuscany on the left, with its soft green hills, and Umbria on the right, with a blue stroke of the brush...it' s Trasimeno Lake. Just here, an elegant mansion-house rises, with its face of yellow and terracotta colours, shined by the morning sun-light that rises upon the lake; and with its brick-turret, warm and stately by the tender light of sunset. And then, you can sight the entrance path, dotted with cypresses; the gravel staircases, lined by roses and wild box hedges; the white travertine of the main portal; and throughout all the mansion the French windows, embroidered by wrought iron, open wide into the vineyard and the garden, intercalated by vases of roses, of lemons, of bouganvilles; and the trees of plums, of apples, of kaki and figs, and these scents that flood in the house. In the "Torretta", under the intricate game of roof-trees, the terraces and the large arched picture windows lean out, into a wide view of gentle green hills strewn with cypresses and remote farmhouses, with orderly vineyards and little olive-hedges. And to frame the valley, the red roofs of Cortona, the majestic contour of Montepulciano, and the remote outline of Amiata Mount, which is distinctly silhouetted against the blue sky...
...This is LA VALIANA.
