Pairing their 12th-century Tuscan villa hotel with a classic sailing yacht, Claus and Jeanette Thottrup have achieved the ultimate in land and sea hospitality.
A heavenly splash of stone amid emerald countryside – this is the immediate and highly agreeable impression of the hotel Borgo Santo Pietro, which lives up to all the superlatives in which it is regularly garlanded, a hidden-away 12th-century villa in the heart of Tuscany. Created by Danish couple Jeanette and Claus Thottrup, the hotel and its sister yacht, 41.5-metre sailing yacht Satori are now twin leaders in luxurious hospitality – but the villa wasn’t always so plush.
The Thottrups bought Borgo in 2001. Already with a house in northern Italy, and then living in London, they decided to buy a property in Tuscany. “We had no idea what we were getting into,” says Jeanette. “It soon became clear that houses in Tuscany were too dark – the opposite of what we wanted. We told the agent, ‘There’s not very much for us here.’ He persuaded us to see one last house: this one. And that was that.”
The couple understood that they had something of a project on their hands. “It was completely derelict,” says Claus. “It had no electricity, no water. The birds and bats were in charge. It was a ruin.” But by now the property was under their skin, and without the stringent conditions that apply to historic buildings in the UK, they gained permission to restore it. A huge driver was the location, the Valle Serena in the province of Siena – indeed, Siena, famous for its Palio horse race, is the nearest large town. “It’s not the hot ‘Chiantishire’ zone for the British like Greve in Chianti; it’s more remote and wild,” says Jeanette, who used to work as a fashion designer. “Italians call it the real Tuscany. There’s forest, rolling hills, vineyards and cypress trees. You can walk for hours and not see anyone.”
Besotted, the Thottrups did their homework and found out that the house existed way back in 1129, when the village was a wayside stop for pilgrims. It was somewhere in between a nobleman’s villa and a farmhouse, but with generous windows and doors that would give lots of light. They began to build and after an unsteady start, decided to project-manage it themselves. “We changed tack from using a big contractor to hiring a series of small artisans,” says Claus, a mechanical engineer and builder who together with Jeanette also has a construction company, PN Homes.
“They worked with our teams on each part to restore the Borgo as it would have looked almost 1,000 years ago,” Claus says. This involved using stones salvaged from the area, natural paints and lime plaster – a time-honoured palette of materials in earthy tones.
Inevitably, it took time. The property spent seven years in restoration and opened in 2008 with six rooms, “a third of what it is today”, says Claus. In the 14 years since, the Borgo has grown to 22 individually decorated rooms, as well as suites and vast grounds. Inside, there’s a great sense of relaxation and elegance, abetted by a scheme that mixes tradition, nature and luxury.
Between themselves, Jeanette and Claus decorated and sourced the furniture from across Europe to create a place of wonder: not overly formal, yet with a sense of grandeur and tradition. “Some is old Tuscan furniture,” says Jeanette. “As we work with Italian artisans, we constantly find old furniture and lighting that we repair and use. You could say it’s a hobby of ours.” Jeanette is particularly interested in textiles. “Because I’ve worked in fashion, I can’t get enough fabrics,” she says.
The bathtubs come from the UK. “Italians are now getting into baths but they tend to be a bit more modern looking,” she adds. “We find the claw-footed ones in Britain and France.” Some of the accoutrements come from the Borgo itself: the cosy blankets found throughout the hotel, for example, come from the property’s own herd of alpacas.
The gardens are an essential part of the Borgo. After an early garden designer fell ill, the Thottrups stepped in. “We went to a lot of Italian gardens, drew on a lot of paper and found it’s best to make a garden when you actually live in the house,” says Jeanette. “That way, you can find what’s missing.” Now, there are gardens for all moods and seasons – relaxing, formal, another based around water – and wilder countryside beyond. “There are so many different experiences here,” says Jeanette. “Our gardens are never really finished. You add a sculpture one year, then a tree… They’re like big paintings that we keep working on.”
With terraces running down through the nearby valley, the gardens also relate to the local landscapes. The infinity swimming pool, says Claus, found its “natural home” away from the villa, with views towards an exquisite hilly panorama. “It’s iconic and in a lot of pictures,” says Claus. “People love it.”
It’s important to the couple that the hotel is sustainable, and most of its food is grown on site. Here, the Thottrups found themselves ahead of the curve. “When we started the hotel, we set up the vegetable garden to transmit the knowledge we gained from restaurants in London,” says Jeanette. “Today we have 82 hectares and it’s more like a market garden than the few beds you find elsewhere. During Covid-19, we couldn’t open the restaurant and had enough to feed the village with vegetables.” Every day, the Borgo’s farm produces ricotta and pecorino cheese, eggs, honey from 20 beehives and, of course, wine. The Thottrups even started a fermentation lab, a herb garden and a skincare line – and hereby hangs a personal tale.
“I was always interested in natural medicine and used to go to Neal’s Yard in London,” says Jeanette. “We both had high-flying careers and had been told we couldn’t have kids. But when we moved here we changed our lives, ate well, and two years later became pregnant with our son, Vincent. It took us personally onto a path. Now our restaurant, Meo Modo, takes that finding to the next level.”
That is part of an ethos about honouring the guest. “For us, it’s not about creating a beautiful lobby while the bedroom is secondary,” says Jeanette. “It’s almost the opposite: your room is your kingdom while you’re here. We often say our rooms are like Alice in Wonderland, as if you’ve been taken out of your own world and put into somebody else’s.” The mood is of rustic luxury and exposed beams made of chestnut, with travertine stone floors provide a backdrop for French chandeliers and antique beds. Each room differs slightly in character. They all have antique fireplaces and some have splashes of colour; the Villa Serena suite is painted in blues and gold. Overall, Jeanette’s design brings together high European grandeur, carefully muted by a Scandinavian sense of space.
That warm Tuscan climate allows an inside-outside design ethos, with candles and fires lit both in and out and multiple plants and flowers indoors, creating access to nature wherever you turn.
But the Thottrup’s ultimate natural immersion lies in another of their projects – their 41.5-metre hand-built sailing yacht, Satori.
Now seven years old, the custom yacht was a labour of love for Claus, who has sailed since he was a child in Denmark. “It’s built in solid teak and mahogany, so it’s heavy,” he says. “But it’s designed to sail. We achieved 14 knots recently which was fantastic.”
Inside Satori are five cabins accommodating 10 guests in a master suite and four doubles as well as eight to nine crew. It offers a truly nautical encounter, designed to connect guests with the ocean. “It’s almost an old-fashioned experience,” says Jeanette, “about enjoying the journey rather than putting a seat belt on and going as fast and far as you can.”
Although Jeanette had not been a sailor at first, a transformative gulet ride changed her mind. “Claus has sailed since he was little, like a lot of people from Denmark, and always wanted to take me sailing,” she says. “On the water, I almost had an out-of-body experience when we started sailing. It was unbelievably beautiful: so close to the water and to the elements – a fantastic experience that was like instant illumination.” Hence the name Satori, the Buddhist term for enlightenment.
Claus had a key role in the yacht’s design and it took him 10 years to perfect Satori. “He’s always designing boats on napkins,” says Jeanette. The mahogany and teak were sourced by the Turkish shipyard from sustainable sources and the main deck and overall look and feel of Satori, from the elegant seats to the lighting and sconces, were inspired by the boats of the 1920s. The main deck’s forward deckhouse accommodates an open kitchen where two chefs work. This year they include a collaboration with Italian star chef Massimo Bottura. It’s like the style of cooking you’d find at Borgo Santo Pietro, except on the water, says Claus.
Satori is their only boat, and they’ve found that the guests are only too happy to mix land and sea. “They’ll do the house one year and the boat the next, or mix it up during a week with four nights at the hotel and three on board,” explains Claus. The transfer is often from the Borgo to the coast, just under an hour away, but they have taken guests by helicopter to the yacht as far away as Greece. Itineraries – which differ in length and are offered from May to October – go variously to Sardinia, Elba, Corsica, Sicily and the Greek islands. But the point is that wherever you are with the Thottrups – in the Tuscan hills or in the rolling Adriatic – a special connection with nature is assured.
First published in the February 2022 edition of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.
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