Lo Scudaio is the kind of place that makes you wonder why more small hotels are not simply houses. Set in the hilltop village of Montescudaio, the palazzo opens onto a garden of pines, magnolias and lime trees, while beyond the rooftops the Tuscan coast and sea sit on the horizon. Inside, it feels less like a hotel than a very well-considered home: generous rooms, old painted ceilings, Art Nouveau floors and a palette of natural materials, all brought together without trying to make the past look more precious than it is.

Käte and Ulrich Caspar took on the Palazzo Marchionneschi with a light touch. Rather than stripping the building back or filling it with Tuscan clichés, they kept its character and introduced a quieter, more contemporary language around it. Earthy colours, lime plaster and simple furniture sit comfortably alongside the older details. The result has a sense of calm that is difficult to manufacture — the building still feels like itself, only more at ease.

That same feeling carries into the rest of the stay. Breakfast is a generous, local affair, served in the palazzo or out in the garden, and the village begins just beyond the gate. Montescudaio is small enough to walk across but lively enough to make staying here feel like living somewhere rather than checking into somewhere. Come evening, you can wander down for dinner; during the day, the coast is close, while the roads into the Etruscan hills lead inland through vineyards, olive groves and the quieter side of Tuscany.

It is this combination that makes Lo Scudaio work: a handsome old house, owners who have resisted overdoing it, and a village that still has a life of its own. You come for the palazzo, but the pleasure is in settling into the rhythm around it — long breakfasts, slow afternoons in the garden and the sea somewhere in the distance.