Palazzo Brandano

Modern-Renaissance hotel with fab views and an excellent terrace restaurant in a small 12th-century hilltown between Siena and Lago Trasimeno

It was, I am told, the ‘terracotta capital’, the hub of Tuscany’s fired-earth potteries; but modern-day Petroio is a sleepy little place. There is a narrow main street which spirals round the hillside up to a church, one bar (which opens on a whim), a butcher, a baker, and a hairdresser (which opens once a week). It has a museum (the Museo della Terracotta), and an artisan pottery studio, but you are more likely to see a line of washing strung across a courtyard than a crowd of tourists lining up to take pictures. And therein lies its charm.

Karim and Miriam Hwaidak (he’s Egyptian, she’s German) settled on Petroio as the place to open an equally charming hotel. A sandstone palazzo with green shutters and a terrace which clings to the hillside, it was named after "Il Brandano", (Bartolomeo Garosi), a Renaissance saint born in the village. The 11 comfortable rooms and suites have traditional décor with rustic roots and one foot in the Middle Ages - note the nouveau frescoes, hand-painted on parchment walls. If there was a boutique hotel for Renaissance artists, this is what it would look like.

Highs

• Location, location: a slice of real Italian village life within easy-peasy distance of Pienza, Montalcino and Montepulciano
• The restaurant alone (delicious food, impeccable service, great views) is worth a visit or a detour
• The staff are exceptional: nothing is too much trouble, and you’ll know them all by name (Joergen, Ousmane, Massimo) by the time you leave
• There is a policy to upgrade when rooms are available

Lows

• No pool
• Not quite enough off-street parking for everyone, but your car can be valet-parked in the village
• It can get a little noisy in the evening, mostly chatter and laughter drifting up from the terrace below
• Although delivered with the usual charm, breakfast lacks the imaginative lustre of lunch or dinner