History of the Apartment and it's Reconstruction

The Apartments

We recently renovated our family ancient building into six independent apartments. The property is located in the most central and historic part of Montepulciano. From this position some apartments enjoy an impressive view over the surrounding valleys, others have a direct access to the secluded and quiet terraced garden. The building is located at walking distance to all major cafés, restaurants, shops, wine cellars and all major attractions. The apartments are accessible by car and a free parking is available at short distance. The name "Politian" derives from a famous Renaissance scholar and poet Angelo Ambrogini known as Poliziano (Politian in English) who was born in a the next door building. I named each apartment after my personal passion for teas as Black Tea, White Tea, Red Tea, Green Tea, Jasmine Tea and Mint Tea.

Montepulciano

Couldn't be a better choice for your next journey to Tuscany. It is in such a small, quaint and cozy town that travelers can feel "at home" almost immediately and welcomed as a part of the community rather than an anonymous tourist in a crowded city. The city is renown from centuries for its finest wines and food, it would be hard to leave it. Yet Montepulciano is a perfectly central location for day-long field trips to cultural and historic centers as Siena, Florence and all the other numerous classic destinations of central Italy! What is the best way of experiencing Tuscany if not living in its most representative town and follow its rhythm? 

From promotional packet

A Warm Welcome to Politian Apartments

The building where the apartments are located is located in the highest and oldest part of Montepulciano between the XIII century Fortress and the monastery of Santa Maria dei Seri.

The houses in the upper part of Via del Poliziano were mostly built in the first half of 1800 on previous settlements belonging to the monastery.  Our property was acquired by our family in 1889 and thoroughly renovated from several small houses into a palazzo with gardens designed to house a family and their servants.  However, like many historic buildings, it has now become too big for the needs of a modern family.

For the restoration, we were inspired by the talented young Italian Swedish entrepreneur, Daniel Kihlgren and his Albergo Diffuso of Santa Stefana di Sessanio, in Abruzzo, Gino Girolomoni, father of organic Italian farming, with his company of Montebello and finally Carlo Petrini, founded of Slow Food and the Major of Pollica, Angelo Vassallo and his beautiful theories of slow city and community.

We have divided the house into four comfortable apartments (now 6).

Our aim was to preserve as much as possible the original features of the building, whilst at the same time providing modern comforts with up-to-date plumbing and electrics, installed by experienced, local artisans.  We used local talented plumbers, electricians, painters, carpenters, blacksmiths, etc., all experienced in renovating historic buildings.

The Decor

For the decor, we had fun re-opening the drawers, restoring paintings, cabinets and objects belonging to our ancestors.

We hope to stir in you some of the feelings that inspired our Great Grandfather, Sir William Stuart, a British Royal Army Captain and his wife, Anna Camp, to leave everything and everyone in Edinburg around 1850 and come to live here in the Tuscan countryside.

Perfectly positioned between classical, Renaissance Florence and sumptuous, elegant, papal Rome, Montepulciano is set in a beautiful landscape, as you'll discover when you walk in the surrounding countryside.

The Furniture

Most of the furniture was made between the late seventeenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century.  It is mostly of Italian manufacture, with some fine examples of the  Florentine craftsmanship, such as you would expect to find in Medici country villas.

The Paintings

Nearly all of the paintings depict rural landscapes or mythological scenes.  And, in the Italian tradition, you will also find sacred and profane images.

Also interesting are some of the Roman School lithographs that represent mythological scenes.  One of Santa Lucia, painted in the late sixteenth century, would seem, from information contained in the Bill of Sale, to come from the studio of the Sienese artist Domenico Beccafumi.

The Fabrics

The tapestries, sheets and bedspreads belong mostly to wedding trousseaux from the late 1800s and early 1900s.  They were produced on a hand loom, probably in the textile workshops of Prato, or in the convents of Lecceto (Siena) and Pienza.  All are made from silk, linen, cotton and hemp.

The embroideries however were sewn by 'women of the family', mothers, aunts, grandmothers; bride or groom.  Almost all of the sheets we found were new and had never been used.

The Copper

All of the copper you see comes from the original kitchens.  Today it is used as objects of decoration but for many centuries it was used to catch and store water, and for cooking.

The good news is that you can actually see copper items being made by Cesare, one of the last copper masters who has his workshop and museum in Via del Teatro, a few meters from our house.  If you go, please tell him that you are staying at the Stuart's and he will certainly be better able than we are to explain the secrets of this beautiful material....including our own pieces.

Ceramics and pottery

Many of the vases and ornaments are of the Tuscan and Umbrian schools, ranging from the nineteeth to the twentieth century.

All of the pottery comes from these local workshops and from Impruneta (Florence).  For the restoration of the garden we have decided to reuse all the bricks and tiles made in the mid-1800's in the furnaces of Pienza and Torrita di Siena.

The sheets:  an inheritance from our grandmother...

Also the sheets, originally dating from the end of the 1800's and the beginning of the 1900's, we have the pleasure to offer you, we have inherited from our grandmothers, and they also have a natural origin.

The major part of them are linen and hemp, two plants that have been used for centuries, for very many varieties of fabrics: from sheets, to military uniforms, to sails for ships, while other items and some bedspreads of silk.

For a long time, Italy has been the leader in the production of all types of fabric; it is said that the Madonnas and saints of the late medieval and renaissance periods, painted by various internationally famous artist, were in reality perhaps a kind of publicity to show off the new fabrics, the new style of clothing, and the new colours, which the Italians were in competition with the Flemish masters.

Here in the town, to be precise in the Fortress, until around 1930, there was the Silkworm Institute, where the cocoons were worked, and from which the silk was extracted.  Many of the plants that are characteristic today along the avenues of the countryside, and the city, above all the mulberry trees, were used to feed the silkworms, who were raised by almost every family of the town, directly in the house...they were a form of earning for many.

.......And the inheritance of Hans Werne Henze

Hans Werner Henze was a musician of international fame who chose Montepulciano as his place of adoption and here, in 1976, founded the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte, which has never been just a simple music festival.  

After having seen the irrationality of the Second World War, he believed that art and only art, could be the key to being well together, a peaceful and common language, that could put everyone in contact: men, women, children, old people, rich, poor, every religion and every culture. 

In his project, supported by the Municipal Administration of that time, he wanted for all the citizens of Montepulciano, besides their being simple and passive spectators, to have the opportunity to participate in the shows, as actors, singers, dancers, painters, musicians, dressmakers, set designers and workers together with professional artists, and also those of international fame.

From 1977 existed the the Concertus Politianus, where children could study music for free and participate in concerts and in a rel orchestra, and for the adults, what happened very often, they discarded their everyday clothes of the entrepreneur, student, mason, shopkeeper, doctor or teacher, etc., and would then meet again in the evening in the public ares to all work together in a new show.

The seventeenth century theatre of Montepulciano is active all year, and for us Poliziani (as the Montepulciano inhabitants are called) is like a second home for us.

Thanks to this particular social background, we have been able to donate to the community the very beautiful antique sheets, but unfortunately they were ruined and cannot be used as such again.

We have donated them to the schools and to the theatre, so they have taken on a new life; some have been painted by Massimiliano Frezzato, one of the greatly appreciated comic-strip writers in the Italian artistic contemporary panorama, who has also chosen Montepulciano, as his adopted home, as many other intellectuals have done and so, the sheets of our grandmothers, have been transformed into the background for some shows, instead of being forgotten in some trunk.

The bricks of Sienese terracotta

We have selected the thicker bricks, flat tiles and the ancient bricks and used them to make the walks or the stairs or the walls.  For the pavements of the terraces, we have acquired new handmade flat tiles from brickworks in Castelmuzio (SI).

Coming from the south of Siena, they have a soft red colour, tending to yellow.  The brickworks further north, instead, produced redder bricks, the famous colour "Siena earth" that originates from the clayey soil of this area and that for many centuries has been used in the painters' workshops, to obtain the intense, warm red colour.

On the back of every flat tile, is the mark of the craftsman - worker, who created it; every brickworks had its own "mark" that was a kind of signature, and also in this case, every brick is similar, but never the same as the other.

Travertine and sedimentary stone

The second level small wall is a dry stone wall also this is a very ancient wall building technique, which slots in and overlaps the stones, without using lime or cement or in very small quantities.  The base is original, characterized by the chalky stone, which came from an ancient quarry in the vicinity, which today is closed.

To rebuild the wall, we obtained the travertine from San Giovanni Terme, in the Sienese countryside, where we have made a selection stone by stone and then transported them to Montepulciano.  Each stone has been transported by hand, pulleys and hoists, from the road to the level where our mason, Gigi, split the and masterly positioned them.  

The white travertine tending to yellow, which changes its tonality according to the day, is a typical marble from this part. Very resistant and porous, it has been used for centuries to construct churches, or as decorations for noble palaces, of monumental sizes, colonnades and public places. 

In Montepulciano, between 1500 and 1600, there existed several quarries, which created entire generations of stone masons, specializing in the artistic surrounds and decorations of the windows, doorways and altars.  Many of these craftsmen also worked in Rome and with their experience succeeded in creating in Rome, the Bernini and Borromini styles, that still today, make it one of the most unique cities in the world.

In the garden we have travertine, but the white marble of the steps and some of the fireplaces of the apartments comes from Carrara, the red marble of the chest of drawers, from vErona, the green marble (serpentine) from Prato, the marble grey (Grigio Imperiale) from Vesuvio area (Napoli).

The flora

Many plants have been here forever, for the others, we have relied on the local nurseries and from a nursery in Florence, specializing in the selection and reproduction of fruit trees and ancient native plants that have almost disappeared from our territory, above all with the development of the industrial fruit and vegetable cultivation.

Some of the decorative plants, are not local; bignonia or the butterfly plant, comes from Central America, but has a characteristic that make them ideal for the climate, dry and hot in summer and rigid in winter, others are the begonia, the forsythia, oleander lavender and flowers such as the geranium (excellent to combat mosquitoes), roses, red current bushes and hibiscus.

We have also planted a vast selection of aromatic plants, such as rosemary, sage, marjoram, oregano, capers and naturally the king of the Mediterranean aromatic plants; basil. Its perfume is synonymous with summer and the sun and is used in a great many dishes from the south of Europe.

The major of the plants do not need much water and are watered from a rainwater cistern, that was recuperated between 2011 and 2012.

The woods

The woods above is public property, but we have restored and cleaned it up, on behalf of our company, in collaboration with the Council Office for th Environment and Maintenance of Public Property of the Municipality and the Legambiente.

It is a centuries old typical Tuscan wood, with the inevitable cypresses, the boxwood, ilex, yew and there can also be seen the remains of the walls XV century town walls.

The fauna

We are in the city, but the garden and the woods give hospitality to  small, discrete, innocuous animals such as lizards, crickets, hedgehogs, doves, turtle doves, fireflies, swallows, nightingales, larks, blackbirds and at times there are also foxes.

Recently there have been added geckos, small lizards, excellent at catching mosquitoes, which up to a few years ago, made up part of the Mediterranean maritime fauna but due to the climatic changes have moved inland.