'The hand of a maestro at work'

Red walled, sun soaked, art filled: the Tuscan haven that is Casa Newton, Pienza, Italy, is set in divine gardens by Luciano Giubbilei

- Pamela Goodman

As crab-apple blossom drifts through my office window and gardens nationwide put on their glad rags, it seems apt to focus upon one particular garden that I chanced upon last year—not in England, I should say, but in Italy.

We were mooching about southern Tuscany with the vague intention of walking up Monte Amiata, a plan swiftly scotched by the weather. No point scaling a mountain in the cloud, we had decided, when the rationale had been to admire the sweeping landscape of Val d'Orcia from the top. A better plan was forged to hang out in the picturesque Renaissance hill-top town of Pienza and get stuck into the wine. This, after all, is serious Sangiovese country, home to Italy's oldest and most famous appellation, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.

We'd heard tell, too, about a new boutique hotel only a mile or two outside Pienza, conveniently located in its own rolling acres of vineyard with a state-of-the art winery and commanding views of both the town and the unclimbed mountain.