Castello Di Casole, And The Shirts Nobody Sees

The Best Places In The World To Hold A Private Event

Castello di Casole

And The Shirts Nobody Sees

Burt Lancaster once opened a dresser drawer on a film set and found it full of silk shirts. They had been made for him, and the camera was never going to see them.

He asked the cameraman. The camera wouldn’t. So he went and asked the director why they were there.

“You’re the Prince. Is for you to touch.”

The film was The Leopard, made in 1963, and the director was Luchino Visconti. Lancaster told the story often enough that it reached his biographer, Gary Fishgall. It’s the best argument I know for how to spend money on an event, and it comes attached to a castle in Tuscany.

The cypress lane near Castello di Casole. — The cypress lane. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

Everything The Camera Never Saw

The shirts were only the start. Claudia Cardinale carried real period perfume in a handbag nobody ever looked inside. The shirts of Garibaldi’s men were rinsed in tea, dried in the sun and buried to age them. On the ball set there were fresh flowers, candles replaced every hour, and a laundry nearby to keep the white gloves clean.

None of it was for the audience. All of it was for the people in the room. Fill the drawer and the man in front of the camera becomes a prince. He stands differently and moves differently, and he does it for the rest of the day.

Guests work the same way. They rarely know why an event worked, but they know straight away that it did. They’re responding to decisions they’ll never consciously notice: what the back of the room looks like from the one seat that faces it, where the light is when the sun drops behind the ridge. None of it is on the running order. It’s the best answer I know to the question of where you can save money.

The chapel courtyard at Castello di Casole. — The courtyard. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

The sunlit facade of Castello di Casole above its rose garden. — The castle. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

Tuscan hills and cypresses at golden hour near Castello di Casole. — Over the hills. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

Cypresses and wild flowers in the grounds of Castello di Casole. — The grounds. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

Aperitivo on a stone terrace at Castello di Casole. — Aperitivo on the terrace. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

A guest cycling through the Tuscan countryside near Castello di Casole. — Out on the estate. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

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Where The Visconti Name Comes In

None of that filming happened at Casole. The ball was shot at the Palazzo Gangi in Palermo. What Casole has is the director’s name, and a castle that Belmond says his younger brother bought.

There has been something on the site for around 2,500 years, since the Etruscans. The castle was built in 998. The Bargagli family farmed and improved the estate through the nineteenth century. In the late 1950s, on Belmond’s account, it became a holiday home for Edoardo Visconti, whom Belmond styles an Earl and who was two years younger than Luchino. Through the 1960s, in Belmond’s telling, it was a party house, with Sophia Loren, Burt Lancaster and Helmut Berger among the names, and fresh flowers in every room, starched cotton pyjamas for guests and vintage champagne.

That chapter comes from the hotel’s own storytelling, and I found no independent record of the purchase or of who hosted what. Take it as a story the property tells. The shirts are the part that’s documented.

Cypress trees in the gardens of Castello di Casole. — The gardens. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

Getting To Casole

The castle sits at Località Querceto, above Casole d’Elsa, between San Gimignano and Siena, about an hour from an international airport. The estate runs to well over three thousand acres, and the drive up through it is the first part of the evening. We confirm transfer times with the resort for each plan.

At A Glance, From Belmond

150Amphitheatre

100Emporio Terrace

100Limonaia Terrace

40The chapel

15Visconti Terrace

39Suites, plus 2 villas

How Many, And Where They Sleep

Belmond lists the Amphitheatre at up to 150, the Emporio and Limonaia Terraces at 100 each, the chapel at 40 and the Visconti Terrace at 15. We confirm the figures for any given plan directly with the resort before it is drawn.

A terrace with striped umbrellas at Castello di Casole. — The terrace. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

The castle has thirty-nine suites and two villas, which means a party can sleep in. Everyone is under the same roof for the whole weekend, and nobody has to leave the evening to find their bed.

A suite bedroom with stone walls and a beamed ceiling at Castello di Casole. — A suite. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

A suite bedroom at Castello di Casole with a view through to the bathroom. — A suite. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

A suite bedroom with tapestry and beamed ceiling at Castello di Casole. — A suite. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

A suite bedroom with terracotta stripes at Castello di Casole. — A suite. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

A suite sitting room at Castello di Casole. — A suite sitting room. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

A suite lounge opening onto a terrace at Castello di Casole. — A suite terrace. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

A suite bathroom with a patterned floor at Castello di Casole. — A suite bathroom. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

A swimmer in the infinity pool at Castello di Casole. — The infinity pool. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

The kitchen garden at Castello di Casole. — The kitchen garden. *Images courtesy of Belmond*

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A Weekend That Feels Like Nobody Planned It

Casole suits a wedding or a milestone over three days, for a client who wants the weekend to feel private. The chapel, the amphitheatre and the terraces give you a real sequence of ceremony, drinks, the meal and somewhere to end up. It suits a client who’ll let you spend on what they can’t point at, and who wants their guests to believe it all simply happened.

I’d take the brief tomorrow, and I’d spend the first day walking the ground at the hour the event is due to start.

Images courtesy of Belmond.

Venue website: belmond.com. Part of The Best Places In The World To Hold A Private Event.

Previously in the series: Borgo Egnazia.

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