What we can arrange
We introduce. They invoice you. We take nothing.
Guests want a cook for one evening, a driver from the airport, a table at a winery that does not take walk-ins, a photographer who knows where the light falls at seven. We are glad to make the introduction: these are people we have worked with for years and we know which of them are worth your week.
What we do not do is sell their work. Every one of them is an independent business. They agree with you what they will do and what it costs, and they invoice you directly. We take no margin and no commission, and their fees never form part of the price of a house.
This is not a technicality. It decides who is answerable if something goes wrong, and it is why you will never see a chef or a tour on a quotation from either house.
- What you rent from us
- The whole house, its grounds and its pool, and the work our own staff do — housekeeping, the linen, the pool, the welcome and the final clean.
- What we introduce
- Cooks, waiting staff, drivers, florists, photographers, musicians, wine estates, guides and wedding planners. Independent businesses, every one.
- What that means for you
- You know who is answerable for what. If a cook cancels, we will help you find another — but your agreement was always with the cook.
- What it does not mean
- Nothing is marked up and no commission is added to their prices. We gain nothing from the introduction except a week that went well.
The kinds of introduction we make
01
At the table
Cooks who will do one dinner or every dinner, waiting staff for a party, and a pastry cook for the morning of a wedding. Most will shop and cook in the house rather than deliver.
02
Getting about
Drivers for the airport run, and for the days when nobody wants to be the one who stays sober. Cars with a driver by the day if you would rather not hire.
03
Wine and the country round it
Estates in Bolgheri, Chianti and the Pisan hills that will open for a private tasting, and guides for Pisa, Lucca, Volterra and Florence who are worth the day.
04
Celebrations
Planners, florists, photographers, musicians and celebrants. Fabio has watched a great many weddings happen in these houses and will say honestly what each lawn holds.
05
While you are here
Massage, a yoga teacher, a tennis coach, riding, a boat out of Livorno. Arranged for the day you want it rather than sold as a package.
06
Children
Babysitters and nannies who have worked in the houses before, so nobody arrives on the first evening not knowing where anything is.
How it works in practice
Tell Fabio what you have in mind, at any point after you have taken a house — most people do it a few weeks before, some the night before. He will suggest one or two people rather than a list of twenty, because a list is not a recommendation.
He passes on your details and theirs. From that point the arrangement is between you and them: they will tell you what they propose and what it costs, you agree it or you do not, and they invoice you — usually after, sometimes with a deposit. Nothing appears on your account with the house.
He remains the person on the end of the telephone. If somebody is late, or the wrong thing arrives, ring him — he has known most of them for a decade and a call from him carries further than a call from a guest.
Further reading
Two of the questions this page raises are answered at length in the journal: how food works at a private villa, which prices a cook honestly, and getting married at a Tuscan villa, which sets out what a lawn holds and who invoices whom.
Start with the house
Everything above follows from which building you take, so that is the decision to make first.
Compare the five houses