Where to get some last-minute winter sun

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Magic midwinter in Tuscany

“Yes girl! Always open.” This was John Voigtmann’s satisfying reply when I WhatsApped him to ask if La Bandita Townhouse, his hotel in the renaissance town of Pienza, was open through the winter. It’s the perfect destination for those who enjoy a fairly independent B&B-style stay; there are the thermal springs at nearby San Filippo, the canteens of Montepulciano and Montalcino to explore, and plenty of cosy places to fill up on winter cucina toscana (Trattoria Il Leccio in Sant’Angelo in Colle and La Scottiglia in Seggiano, each about a 40-minute drive from Pienza, are both ideal for this).

In the late afternoons and evenings, La Bandita’s sprawling first-floor sitting room is the place to snuggle up, with its borrowing library, honesty bar and rocking vinyl collection (Voigtmann was a record executive in New York in his previous life). The hotel’s excellent restaurant, Townhouse Caffe, is closed after 7 January, though chef David Mangan, formerly of Gleneagles, has been known to open things up on a whim for special chef’s dinners. The rooms are contemporary, spare but very comfortable, with floating beds and low settees set beneath the sloping 15th-century beamed ceilings of what was formerly a convent.

Enter the valley of wellbeing

It calls itself – slightly unfortunately – a “wellness luxury hotel”. But I implore you not to be put off by the clumsy Euro-isms, because Lily of the Valley serves one of the most results-positive wellness experiences I’ve ever had. More importantly for the non-Spartans among us, it was by far the most pleasurable. This is the un-spa spa, dressed up like a super-chic beach hotel (courtesy of Philippe Starck, who was having a really good day when he drafted these interiors) with surfeits of colour, flavour, happy people and treatments that switch out pummelling and pain for cosseting.

Three nights, one plan: choose weight loss, detox, sport or better ageing. The former two will see you (still) eating three square meals of beautiful fresh food a day. Movement classes are included in the package price; likewise, long coastal hikes, bike rides and a very fun aqua-erobics session in the sea down at Gigaro beach (in full wetsuit and balaclava of course). Sauna and steam circuit, (well-heated) swimming pool and a large, very pretty gym: all of them, all-you-can-use. Or, ignore them; embark on a steak tartare-tiramisu-grand cru classé-massage rélax programme instead. They do that really well, too.

Blink-and-you-miss-it bliss in the Maremma

It was La Bandita’s Voigtmann who first brought to my attention Locanda Sospesa, Johnny Petrucci and Elizabeth Silvestri’s unique palazzo in the blink-and-you’ll-miss it village of Pereta, deep in the Tuscan Maremma. On the face of it, their B&B is chalk to La Bandita’s cheese, with its grand 15th-century dimensions and more-is-more art deco design; but the two hoteliers share a generous hospitality ethos.

Petrucci and Silvestri will leave you be to enjoy your book in a solitary corner if that’s your agenda; but, like Voigtmann, they’re brimming with local intelligence. If you get a mild sunny day, the hanging garden is nice for a late-morning tea. And there’s a grand salotto for day’s end unwinding, complete with huge fireplace and billiards table.

Design and detox in the South of France

We at HTSI were chuffed to be the first ones in at Valéry Grégo’s extraordinary hotel-spa-cultural restoration project in the heart of Nice’s old town when it opened in June. Having now been in operation for several months, it’s firing on full cylinders – on-site boulangerie, stunning spa-Roman bath complex, street-level bistro and all. This year, Grégo and company will keep the Couvent open throughout January on a test run. I (finally) had the chance to stay the night a couple of weeks ago, and can vouch for this hotel’s very winter-specific appeal.

The orange trees of the courtyard were golden and ochre in the early sunset, the kitchen garden pared-back and mostly sleeping. Inside, all was glowing warmth; the bar scene has moved inside, to cosy banquettes and big shared tables scattered with newspapers. The restaurant is similarly low-lit and quietly buzzy – it’s open to outside guests, so les Niçois make up a good portion of the clientele – and the food is refined comfort (the lemon chicken comes with an actual roasted lemon). A calming tisane, based on the nuns’ original recipes, awaits you at turndown. The rooms are a master class in flawless understatement, and the silence of a winter night here was utterly restorative.