The Sydney Morning Herald
· collected 2026-09-28 · by Chrissie McClatchie
The Tuscan resort of Castelfalfi is at maximum capacity for its annual Spring Festival in late March – quite literally; it’s a sell-out.
asserted
it → ’ → March
In December, 30,000 people came for its Christmas market, so management made the smart decision to ticket this weekend event, while keeping it free for locals.
asserted
management → come → locals
Even so, it still seems like every family in the Pisa-Siena-Florence triangle is making an appearance at some point over the two-day program, if the line of parked cars lining every access road to the hilltop village is anything to go by.
asserted
line → seem → village
As hotel guests, my 10-year-old daughter, Lottie, and I need only to flash our room key and we’re ushered straight past the security fence, where an explosion of music from competing loudspeakers awaits.
asserted
explosion → need → loudspeakers
Some stallholders – selling everything from potted flowers to truffle paste and lots of pretty handmade jewellery (including a lemon pendant necklace blown from Murano glass that’s calling my name) – look increasingly fatigued by the mash-up of Britney Spears and ABBA blasting through the air from different directions.
asserted
that → sell → directions
I, however, am completely swept up in the buzz, singing along while sipping a Paloma spritz poured from one of the food trucks.
asserted
I → sweep → trucks
In classic pre-teen fashion, Lottie – deep in her own culinary heaven thanks to a bombolone (doughnut) filled with Kinder chocolate – keeps her distance from her ever-embarrassing mother.
asserted
Lottie → fill → mother
In fact, for most of the late 20th century, the two streets that made up this borgo were silent.
asserted
that → make → borgo
In a copy and paste of thousands of medieval settlements across Italy, the hillcrest village had emptied; the last of its residents lured to the big smoke and the opportunities it offered in the 1950s.
asserted
it → empty → 1950s
The buttercream-toned huddle of stone buildings overlooking the Valdera – one of Tuscany’s lesser-known patches, yet only 45 minutes from both Pisa and San Gimignano – stood tall but forgotten, mementos of a bygone era when these valleys hummed with rural life.
asserted
valleys → overlook → life
Nearly two decades ago, German tourism group TUI acquired the entire village and its surrounding estate and took the first steps in transforming it into a high-end eco-resort.
asserted
TUI → acquire → resort
In 2021, it was sold to Indian-Indonesian billionaire Sri Prakash Lohia.
asserted
it → sell → Lohia
The new owner has raised the bar.
asserted
owner → raise → bar
Among Castelfalfi’s current accolades are two Michelin Keys and a Forbes Travel Guide five-star rating, no doubt hooked on features such as a signature suite designed by Stefano Ricci inside the village’s 14th-century castle.
asserted
Keys → hook → castle
Across the estate’s 1090 hectares, guests can book on-site activities ranging from truffle hunting and wine tasting to pizza making, lake fishing, e-bike touring and a night jeep safari.
asserted
guests → book → making
A sleeping beauty awakened, Castelfalfi’s fairytale is part of a growing hospitality trend that’s breathing new life into Europe’s abandoned hamlets and villages.
asserted
that → sleep → hamlets
Many of these villages-turned-hotels fall under the concept of albergo diffuso, Italian for scattered hotels.
asserted
Many → turn → hotels
The term is a nod to the typical character of these properties: rooms spread across multiple buildings in a village, with guests navigating cobblestone streets and covered alleyways instead of internal staircases and lifts to access communal areas such as breakfast rooms, reception desks and restaurants.
asserted
guests → spread → rooms
Castelfalfi’s dining options include a sweet gelateria and a delicatessen straining under the weight of different styles of pecorino cheese, alongside a cosy pizzeria tucked along its main streets.
asserted
options → include → streets
Meals are accompanied by the estate’s olive oils (the rosemary-infused variety paired with freshly baked focaccia is a meal in itself), and attentive waitstaff top up my glass with elegant house wines.
asserted
waitstaff → accompany → wines
Not all reborn villages come with Castelfalfi’s luxury trimmings – or price tag.
asserted
villages → reborn → trimmings
Some of the most memorable reveal themselves only after dedicated internet sleuthing.
asserted
Some → reveal → sleuthing
That’s how another Italian spot, Colletta di Castelbianco, appeared on my radar more than a decade ago.
asserted
spot → ’ → radar
Near the French border in Liguria, the village was severely damaged in an 1887 earthquake.
asserted
village → damage → earthquake
Inhabitants started to trickle away, and by the 1970s, the population was a mere five people.
asserted
population → start → 1970s
In the 1980s, a group of local entrepreneurs banded together to revitalise it, emphasising original materials and techniques in the rebuild.
asserted
group → band → rebuild
Ahead of its time – and certainly pre the global pandemic remote work boom – the project was imagined as a “teleworking” community, although now it has a definite out-of-office vibe.
asserted
it → imagine → vibe
The hamlet appears glued among thick vegetation to the slopes of the unspoilt Pennavaira valley, about 20 minutes inland from the seaside resort of Albenga.
asserted
hamlet → appear → Albenga
Its silhouette resembles a cluster of Greek Island homes, only with flat-roofed buildings fashioned from slate grey stones rather than whitewashed walls.
asserted
silhouette → resemble → walls
There’s nothing but nature’s greens for company, which I admire while floating in a lap pool built into the terraced landscape.
asserted
I → ’ → landscape
A casual, vine-covered bar and bistro beckons for late afternoon aperitivo that drifts into dinner.
asserted
that → cover → dinner
Tucked up in the northern reaches of France’s vine-speckled Languedoc region, Village Castigno is a scattered hotel in the village of Assignan that’s long been on my travel wish-list, too.
asserted
that → tuck → list
While never abandoned, Assignan’s population had dwindled to less than 200, and the village’s demographics were steadily ageing when Belgian couple Marc and Tine Verstraete purchased and restored the nearby 12th-century chateau Castigno in 2007.
asserted
demographics → abandon → 2007
Late last year, when road-tripping across France’s Mediterranean arc with my sister and younger daughter, I thought I’d stumbled upon a savvy hack.
asserted
I → trip → hack
Why pay €300-plus for a family room at the hotel when I could book a privately owned house in the village – with an “excellent 9.0 rating” on booking.com – for €77, instead?
uncertain
I → pay → 77
With the savings, I reasoned, we could splash out on dinner at Castigno’s acclaimed Thai restaurant, inside a spacious village house, and return as external guests for breakfast – coming out more or less even.
uncertain
we → reason → breakfast
Apart from where we slept, our stay would revolve around Castigno’s facilities.
asserted
stay → sleep → facilities
Check-in with our friendly host is smooth and our cottage home, called La Maison De Blanche Neige (Snow White’s House) for the evening is, on first impressions, cute if not a little musty.
asserted
home → check → impressions
We don’t linger, keen to reach Chateau Castigno’s tasting room before it closes for the day at 5pm.
asserted
it → linger → 5
Inside an impressive cork-wrapped structure shaped like a wine bottle when viewed from above, our cellar host shares the backstory: when the Verstraetes acquired the chateau and the surrounding vineyards, their intention was simply to make wines to enjoy with friends in their new home.
asserted
intention → wrap → home
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
