Is this the most charming spot in Tuscany?

Oliver Poole was stunned to inherit a farmhouse, then realised it was too special not to share

AT first I was excited. Then I was terrified. Now I cannot believe my luck. Like one of those befuddled characters in a Hollywood find-yourself comedy, I was that person who, on a dark winter's day, received the unexpected phone call: a voice at the other end saying I had just inherited a 15th century farmhouse and 50 acres of rolling Tuscan countryside.

I had no idea it was coming; the journey of how it had ended up with me being a convoluted one of marriages, divorces and death. But as a result I found myself the sole owner of an Italian property and, I quickly realised, all the responsibilities that come with it.

Aweek or two later, I was firmly in the terrified stage, amid the curling carpets and strip lighting of Stansted airport, waiting to board a Ryanair flight to Florence. I am writing this now because once there I found a place so perfect that I want everyone to experience it.

Let's start with the location. Settled on the crest of a hill less than a mile from Castellina-in-Chianti, the house is in the heart of Tuscany's Renaissance golden triangle. As well as Florence, Pisa and Siena, there are lesser-known gems such as San Gimignano and Val d'Orcia. Yet it is not the splendour of the surrounding cities and towns that makes the location so special.