Restored podere in the Romagna hills

The villa is an old Romagna farmhouse, brought back to life by Monia and Fabio, standing alone at the top of a dead-end road in the hills above Faenza. It holds four self-contained apartments, one and two bedrooms each, with open living areas, fitted kitchens and doors onto the garden. An infinity pool sits at the edge of the slope, looking out over vineyards, orchards and the plain beyond. Apartments can be taken one at a time, or the whole podere at once for up to twelve guests.

The house sits at the top of its own hill, five minutes off the main road above Faenza, where the last stretch of Via Giovanni Collina climbs through vineyards and simply ends at the house. The farmhouse is old and the restoration is recent, so the shell is Romagna stone and render while everything inside is new: pale walls, timber ceilings, soft linens, and windows that hold the hills like paintings.

The house is divided into four apartments, each one entirely private and each opening to the outdoors. Two are one-bedroom, made for couples; two have a second bedroom and take four. All four share the same language of quiet rooms and clean light, and all four have a kitchen and living area of their own, so a stay can be as sociable or as solitary as guests want it. Taken together the podere sleeps twelve, which makes it as easy to book for two as for a family gathering or a group of friends travelling together.

Outside, the infinity pool is the centre of the day. It runs to the edge of the hillside and appears to spill into the vineyards below, with a Mediterranean garden of lavender, olive and cypress around it and a full circle of countryside beyond. In the early evening the plain turns gold as far as the coast, and the only sound is the wind moving through the vines. Walking and cycling routes leave from the gate and thread out through the surrounding hills.

Faenza lies minutes away, a city known worldwide for its ceramics, with workshops, a great ceramics museum and a good Saturday market. Brisighella and its three hilltop landmarks are a short drive further into the Apennine foothills, and Bologna, Ravenna, Rimini and Florence are all within day-trip reach. This is Emilia-Romagna at the table as well: Sangiovese and Albana from the vineyards immediately around the house, piadina, and the trattorie of the Lamone valley.

Monia and Fabio live on the property and run it themselves, which is what most guests write about afterwards. The podere is adults only and does not accept pets.