B&B La Pecora Nera

The B&B La Pecora Nera is at via Mazzolla 22, in the village of Mazzolla, a handful of houses above the valley a few kilometres from Volterra, in the province of Pisa. The property was created by restoring some rooms of the old convent that formed part of the village, and the owners declare that they have kept the original features intact. It is run by Elisa, a cheese taster by profession and a cellist by passion, and her partner Giovanni; the house presents itself as a place outside the usual patterns and a little against the current, romantic and sentimental at the same time. It really is small: three rooms in all.

The three rooms are called Eva, Frida and Eleonora, each dedicated to a different woman, and they are all of 40 square metres, for two people, with a double bed. The particular feature they share, and which should be understood before booking, is that the bed and the hot tub are in the same room: they are rooms conceived as blank canvases, with furnishings and objects of art and design, and the tub is part of the scene, not shut away in the bathroom. The equipment declared for all the rooms includes the hot tub with chromotherapy and aromatherapy, heating and cooling units, a hairdryer, wi-fi and a kettle with tea and herbal teas. On request the house serves in the room, beside the tub, boards of local produce with a bottle of wine or prosecco.

On the wellness area it is worth saying precisely how things stand, because this is the point where the booking portals get confused. La Pecora Nera has no spa: there is no pool, and the website names no sauna, steam room, water and steam circuit or shared relaxation area. The hot tub is the one in the room, one tub per guest, not a shared tub. What there is, and what is declared, is a service of massages and treatments on request: ayurveda, foot reflexology, Californian massage, relaxing massage and a face and décolleté treatment. Anyone looking for a wellness centre with opening hours and a circuit will not find it here; anyone looking for a private tub in their own room will.

Breakfast is the strong point of the house and is declaredly organic: a buffet with cakes made in the house, a small savoury menu, fruit juices, every kind of coffee and teas. The owners also point to the Fattoria Lischeto, the organic farm in the area, for cheeses, oil and local produce. Among the activities offered directly by the bed and breakfast there are horse rides, which start from the property, on request and at an additional cost.

Mazzolla is a village of historical and natural interest, with no shops or services: you are in the countryside, and Volterra, with its Etruscan and medieval centre, is a few minutes away by car. It is a quiet base for touring the Val di Cecina and the hills around Volterra, and the altitude, a little over three hundred metres, poses no problem to anyone.

Two pieces of information that appear on this page are not borne out by the property's website, and should be stated for what they are. The house is given as reserved for adults aged eighteen and over and with pets allowed: this information comes from the booking portals, while Elisa and Giovanni's website never names either an age threshold or dogs. The silence of a website contradicts nothing, so this page keeps the figure from the booking portal, but anyone travelling with a child or with an animal should have the rule confirmed directly by the owners before booking. It should be borne in mind in any case that in each of the three rooms the hot tub is in the same room as the bed, which makes the house ill suited to a stay with children regardless of the rules.

It suits two adults who want a large, carefully kept and theatrical room, with the hot tub within reach and a breakfast made in the house, in a village where nothing happens in the evening. It suits less those looking for a hotel with a reception, group services or a wellness area to use every day, and those who want to be in the centre of Volterra on foot.