Villa Season
Provence, Tuscany and Mallorca: a house for the summer.
A house for the summer: Provence, Tuscany, Mallorca, the Luberon or Hydra, shutters, a pool, a market twenty minutes away, and eight nights at the least. Villa Season is the chapter of the year spent at one long table, with the same people, in no hurry.
- When
- Late June to early September
Villa Season, in full.
A house, not a hotel
Villa Season is the summer taken in one house rather than a run of hotels: no concierge, no turndown, the day arranged by the people at the table. One person chooses the house; everyone else agrees to its rules. The week takes its shape from three fixed points: a late breakfast, a long lunch and dinner after dark.
Shutters, a pool and a market
The classic houses sit inland of the coast, where the land is cheaper and the evenings cooler: the Luberon and the Alpilles in Provence, the hills of Chianti and the Val d’Orcia in Tuscany, the north and the Tramuntana in Mallorca. The test of a house is simple. Shade at lunch, a pool that takes the afternoon, and a market within twenty minutes.
The day, in three meals
Coffee at eleven. Lunch at three, outside, and long. The pool between four and seven, when the heat breaks. Dinner at ten. The hours between two and four belong to the shade and a book, and the house is quiet.
A house for the summer
Villa Season is where a holiday becomes a household, in three places: Provence in southeastern France, Tuscany in central Italy and Mallorca in the Balearics.
Provence brings markets, vineyards, hill towns, Roman sites and the lavender fields. Tuscany brings Florence and Siena, Chianti, the Val d’Orcia and the cypress roads. Mallorca brings Palma, the Serra de Tramuntana, the coves and the stone villages.
The days take their shape from the house: the market in the morning, lunch outside, the pool, and dinner that starts late.
When to go
May to September. May and June for the markets and the green hills; July and August for the heat and the long evenings; September for the harvest.
On the wall
The house carries the summer home in its slow living photographs: the shutters, the long table and the light at the end of the day.
Provence, Tuscany and Mallorca: a house for the summer.
What you will actually be doing.
- 01
A lunch at a table under the vines that begins at three and ends at six.
- 02
The market in the next village on its weekly morning, before the heat.
- 03
A swim before breakfast, with the house still asleep.
- 04
A drive to a hill town nobody planned to see, for an ice cream and the view.
- 05
The last dinner of the week, outside, with the candles lit.
The rules the regulars keep.
- 01
Eight nights
The first two are for arriving and the last two for leaving. Anything shorter is a long weekend.
- 02
One quiet hour
Between two and four the house is quiet: shade, books and the pool.
- 03
Calls by the gate
Work is done out of sight. The table and the pool are kept for the house.
- 04
Cook in pairs
Two to a meal, every day a different two. Dinner is the week’s one fixture.
Where this season is spent.
Read it before you go.
Practical, briefly.
What is Villa Season?
The house’s guide to the European summer house, in Provence, Tuscany and Mallorca.
Which months suit Villa Season?
May to September: the markets and the green hills early, the heat in July and August, the harvest in September.
Where should I go for Villa Season?
Provence for the markets and the light, Tuscany for the hill towns and the vineyards, Mallorca for the coves and the mountains. Each has its own guide in the Season.
Three doors from here.
A place, a fixture, a story: three ways out of this season, picked from the field guide.
A place · Central Italy · ItalyTuscany
Hill towns, vineyards and the long table outside.
A story · Living with artCoastal Wall Art, Chosen Properly
A buying guide to coastal photography that holds a room: scale, horizon lines, framing, and where the sea belongs in a house. Written by people who print the thing they’re recommending.
Shop the Season · September to NovemberAutumn, in town.
Café society, Paris, Cities