Tuscany Now & More

Tuscany Now & More is the rare company that has been refining its craft for over three decades. Founded in 1990 with a single property and a disciplined philosophy about fair pricing and owner relationships, the firm has grown into a curator of 130 carefully vetted villas across Tuscany, Umbria, Venice, Verona, Rome, and the Amalfi Coast. Every property in their portfolio offers a private swimming pool and is exclusively represented by Tuscany Now & More, which means what you see on their site cannot be booked elsewhere. That exclusivity is not marketing language; it reflects genuine relationships with property owners who have chosen to trust this company alone with their rental representation. In 2014, the company rebranded from its original name to Tuscany Now & More to signal expansion beyond Tuscany into complementary Italian destinations.

What separates Tuscany Now & More from directories and marketplaces is their commitment to the personal visit. The team does not curate from photos and listings; they physically inspect every villa on their roster. This is not a one-time onboarding step but an ongoing practice rooted in their belief that understanding a property requires walking through it, checking the kitchen, testing the views from each terrace, and meeting the staff who will serve guests. That approach attracts a particular kind of traveler: someone who is paying seriously for luxury and wants to know that a human being has actually vouched for what they are spending money on. The company pioneered several industry firsts that reflect this hands-on ethos, including being the first UK travel company to establish an online presence and the first travel company to advertise a website in The Sunday Times. These details matter because they signal a company that has invested in operational innovation and transparency from its founding rather than adopting best practices after competitors proved them.

The portfolio ranges from intimate one- or two-bedroom cottages to sprawling estates sleeping over twenty guests. Beyond the base rental, Tuscany Now & More can arrange in-villa staffing through a network of personal chefs, housekeeping specialists, sommeliers, and bartenders. For clients building a larger retreat or seeking specific expertise, the company sources professionals from its established contacts, adding layers of service that scale with what a guest wants to experience. For clients planning a larger retreat, the company also handles the logistics of personally organized experiences: cooking lessons, wine tastings from small producers, truffle hunts, cultural outings in Florence or Rome, and arrangements with luxury car rental partners. The concierge service is complimentary and operates by phone and WhatsApp throughout a guest's stay, offering support from their London and Barcelona offices. That two-continent presence means someone can respond to questions or emergencies regardless of timezone, and it reflects the scale of operation necessary to support a global clientele across multiple Italian regions and property types.

The organization's team is deliberately Italian-facing. Over 400 staff members include Italian specialists, English-speaking concierges, property photographers, and field experts with intimate knowledge of regions and properties. This is deliberate strategy: the company values staff who are either Italian or, as they frame it, "long-standing Italophiles" who understand their regions firsthand rather than as abstract geography. That foundation shows in the kinds of experiences they can arrange and the way they troubleshoot when a guest needs something unexpected. A concierge who has lived in Florence for ten years and knows restaurant owners personally can get you into places that a booking platform cannot. That deep local integration is expensive to build and maintain, which explains why it correlates with higher positioning and higher pricing.

Booking terms at Tuscany Now & More reflect a more structured, professionally managed rental operation than a peer-to-peer marketplace. For reservations made more than nine weeks ahead, the company asks for a 30 percent deposit within two days of booking, with the balance falling due closer to arrival. For next-year bookings made during the current year, deposits start between 10 and 20 percent depending on timing. For last-minute bookings under nine weeks out, full payment is required upfront. The company's cancellation policy is strict: once booked, cancellations result in the loss of all monies paid. That rigidity is typical of luxury operators managing exclusive properties and reflects the company's commitment to property owners that they can reliably confirm bookings. Weekly linen and towel changes, electricity, water, and seasonal pool access (typically May through October) are included in rates, though heating charges and some premium services like maid or chef staffing are booked separately and billed beyond the base rental. The firm does not publish price lists; rates vary by season, property size, and specific amenities, and booking requires contact with their specialists to understand pricing for a specific property and date.

Tuscany Now & More has received recognition that reflects their standing within the industry. Travel and Leisure magazine named them the second-best villa rental company in the world for their 2025 awards, positioning them within the global top tier. Condé Nast Traveller has included them in their Readers' Choice awards for nine consecutive years, suggesting sustained satisfaction across multiple award cycles. Food and Travel magazine recognized them as Tour Operator of the Year in 2023. These accolades are meaningful less for the prestige and more because they suggest that serious travel publications and significant reader bases have encountered the company, booked with them, and returned positive impressions. When a well-resourced publication like Travel and Leisure ranks villa rental companies at a global scale, the methodology typically involves editor experience, reader feedback, and verification of operations. Reaching the top tier of such rankings signals competence at scale and consistency over time.

The company's positioning makes sense for a particular class of traveler. If you are booking a large family estate in Chianti for three weeks, coordinating with in-villa staff, arranging wine tastings with the sommelier, and want a concierge on standby if something goes wrong, Tuscany Now & More offers the infrastructure and the relationships to deliver that. If you are planning a smaller trip and shopping purely on price, the company's approach and overhead are likely not the right fit; a marketplace with more properties and more variability in vetting depth might serve you better. The company's founding philosophy remains central to its operations today: their customers should pay fairly, property owners should earn fairly, and Tuscany Now & More earns its commission through service excellence. That alignment of interests, where the company's income depends on both guests and owners remaining satisfied, creates different incentives than a high-volume transactional model where margins depend on volume rather than repeat satisfaction.

For someone who views a villa stay as a significant investment and wants to know that the company on the other end has spent decades building relationships with actual properties and regions rather than optimizing a search algorithm, Tuscany Now & More has the track record and team to deliver. The personal visits, the exclusive representations, the concierge infrastructure, and the staff depth represent a particular operational model, one that works because it is sustained by clientele willing to pay for that level of service and service quality. That model is not universally appropriate, but within the universe of upscale villa rentals across Italy, it represents one of the most established and recognized operators in the market.