| In the rolling hills of Tuscany, where the sun casts a yellow-green glow over the landscape, causing the grape vines and olive trees to vibrate with colour, every good-sized hilltop sports an ancient rock castle.
In the Middle Ages they were fortresses, grim redoubts from which warriors under siege poured cauldrons of boiling oil down onto enemy soldiers trying to top the walls with scaling ladders.
Today the better hilltops sport luxury resorts built around top-flight wineries, both created by ambitious renovations to those battered old castles.
One of the best is Castello Banfi, winery and resort with a Michelin-starred restaurant where white-toqued chefs ladle plates of wild boar stew and truffled pasta. The $400- to $800-a-night hotel has plasma screen TVs and mammoth bathrooms. Masseurs ply the backs of guests with quite different types of oil -- luxury skin-care products made of the region's famous Sangiovese grapes.
The castle, just outside Montalcino in southern Tuscany , between Siena and Florence , is more than a resort. It's also a working winery turning out 125,000 cases a year of Tuscany 's fabulous Brunello di Montalcino wine.
Castello Banfi is the story of the pioneering Italian Mariani family that moved to America, made its fortune importing modest Italian wines, then returned on a mission to pull Tuscany out of its doldrums and into the top ranks of world wine.
"I'm very proud of what my family has achieved here," says Cristina Mariani-May, proprietor of Castello Banfi and the third generation of leadership of New York-based Banfi Vintners, America's biggest wine importer, founded by her grandfather, John F. Mariani Sr., in 1919.
"It has helped create a renaissance in Tuscan winemaking and contributed to Montalcino's growth from one of Tuscany 's poorest hilltop towns to its wealthiest and most significant."
It's a compelling travel destination, luring 60,000 visitors a year, a pamper-yourself central point from which you can tour the wineries and restaurants of Tuscany and visit the neighbouring hill towns with their own ancient castles.
A visit to Castello Banfi is a trip through Tuscany 's turbulent past and its luxury-loving present. The ambitiously restored, tall-towered castle itself houses the Giovanni F. Mariani Museum of Glass, one of the world's top collections of vases, bottles, flasks and drinking instruments from the 5th Century BC to the present.
The castello's history is still palpable. Its old dungeon is now its wine cellar; its winding stairwells boast swords, pikes, breastplates and helmets from its violent past.
Downstairs is the Tuscan Taverna, a casual restaurant with dark wood and white plaster walls, serving local fare from wild boar stew to traditional Tuscan cookies dipped in its luscious dessert wine Florus. Just outside is Il Ristorante, with frescoed walls and five- and seven-course tasting menus and a la carte service. Banfi is the only wine estate in Italy with a Michelin One Star restaurant and a Wine Spectator magazine Award of Excellence.
Just down the hill is the Enoteca, selling Tuscan wine, grappa, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, artisan pastas, cookies, local ceramics, wools, soaps, stemware, coffee table books.
Nestled safely beside the castle walls is Il Borgo, a luxury resort hotel that opened only recently, created out of an 18th century hamlet. The rooms are huge, decorated by Italian designer Federico Forquet, with white-plaster walls and open-beam ceilings, sitting rooms, fireplaces and mini-bars almost too big to be called mini.
From the big swimming pool with terraced garden, you can see over the hills to the Mediterranean on a clear day. Also in the castle is a reading room with fireplace and facilities for cooking and wine-tasting events. And just past the Enoteca is another fascinating feature, La Balsameria.
Over $100 million have been spent renovating Castello Banfi, building a state-of-the art winery just down the hill, equipping it with expensive French oak barrels and temperature-controlled, stainless steel fermenting tanks.
Castello Banfi is well worth a visit and stay for a couple of nights.
Source and details: http://www.post-gazette.com
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