Grand Hotel Villa Cappugi: Pistoia, ITALY

Ahhhh... this is a little trip that I had taken as one of my last concert tours in Europe. Honestly, as much as I hate travelling (yes yes, I know... I had chosen the wrong job for that...)... there are some moments which make it really quite worthwhile.

One of the perks of travelling with an ensemble is the fact that you don't pay for the hotel... of course, depending on the ensemble and the touring budget, this can either mean that you end up in dodgy hellholes... or glamorous mansions. Mostly, it is something in between.

For this tour, our last night was in the interesting little villa complex on the outskirts of Pistoia. I think it was chosen because it was outside the town, which meant that we would all have an easy getaway to the airport on the next morning.

... as the tour bus drove into the villa complex before the seating rehearsal, there was a sense that this could be one of the nicer, more relaxing places that would have stayed at. Honestly, it looks very much like one of those places that you would book in the middle of France or Italy... where you book a holiday to get away from the flatness of Netherlands and get away from the digital life (ha ha... just joking, my wife will tell you that I never get away from the digital life!).

Even just looking out over the carpark, you can see that there is ample opportunity to go for walks, or just to sit and read a book in a bit of relative peace.

Okay... the decor is a bit strange in the foyer. My friend thought it was really cool, and that she would love those chairs in her house... I'm a bit worried about her. Corona-time has been a little bit stressful for her, and it might be that things are starting to crack...

... these are the sorts of chairs that Mr and Mrs Santa Claus would be sitting in... not the sort of thing that you would have in a home, unless you were living in a pre-Revolution French aristocratic mansion. Hmmm, perhaps there is something that my friend is hiding from me...

Moving up to the levels of where the guest rooms are... you see that the decor is a little less in the style of soon to be deposed and deceased royalty and more in the fashion of an old person's home. That said... there is something comforting about such an old style, it isn't anything that I would have in my own home... but the thought of just sinking into one of those chairs whilst sipping a nice Scotch and reading a book or discussing philosophy... or something.

The corridors are the usual rat-maze of similar looking corridors... at least the carpet is somewhat clean and not doubling as an optical illusion...

Making our way into the rooms, I found that the rooms were a touch on the unheated side (it was the start of winter...). So, it is possible that this place is perhaps a better place to base yourself in the warmer months of the year... on the other hand, it wasn't freezing either... and definitely not overheated and dry like most other hotels.

One notable thing was that the rooms were incredibly spacious as well... perhaps I got lucky with the room allocation. When we are travelling as a group, we don't always get the same types of rooms depending on the availability of the rooms. Usually, the soloists and the singers get the best stuff... otherwise their egos would destroy them from the inside and we would have to suffer the rest of the tour with their complaints and grumbling. Given that on this tour, I was just a rank and file tutti player, I don't think I got special treatment!

... and I couldn't complain about the view either! It is really nice not to have a view of a cemetery or a car park... or the airport runway!

The down side to this villa is the distance away from the town... there is a restaurant attached to the villa, but by the time that our concert finished and we go back here, it was well and truly closed... although, I do suspect that that had more to do with corona regulations rather than an actual regular occurrence.

Sadly, we were only here for a single evening... and given that I had to leave at 4 am for a flight... I didn't really get to enjoy the views and the quietness so much. However, if I every do find myself in this area... I think I would be considering staying here! Or maybe in that little house high up on the hill... or maybe in the mountains behind...