Your explorations during your stay will follow my footsteps, the places that I discovered here and loved. You’ll encounter the people who make the wine, the cheese, the meats, and the vegetables that feed my own family and the families of my neighbors, who have always lived this way.
Some of these people are conscientious, elderly caretakers of great unchanged traditions. Some of them are immigrants like me, arriving here with the passion and enthusiasm of a newfound convert. Some of them are young and see the potential here in the soils and the culture, in the potential of our changing world.
People always ask me, what made me pick up and move to Tuscany?
“I wanted to create a hotel that felt like staying with friends.”
When I first visited this area, I fell in love with the beauty. Everyone does. When I came back (again and again) I fell in love with the people and the community they had created. At the time, I was living in New York, working in the music industry, and I was tiring of chasing rock stars around the world, and yearning for some of that community. I was looking for a simpler life, and I wanted to find a way to contribute from the culture the cuisine and the beauty of the area, rather than simply profiting from it. La Bandita was born from this yearning, and from the crazy youthful optimism (which i still hold onto). Everyone thought I was nuts. And I did it anyways.
I choose Pienza because I live here and I love it here. I’m not a hotel group with a clever business plan, I just wanted to offer friends and friends of friends a relaxed, fun and beautiful place to experience the sweetness of life in Tuscany.
- John Voigtmann, Owner
Our building is a former renaissance era convent (nuns lived here.) When renovating it, we left the stone exterior in tact. As such, you might walk by assuming it to be a local’s house. We’re not trying to change the village, just keen to support it and breathe more life into it along with our neighbors.
Our goal was to create a comfortable, fun, and stylish place to relax, eat well and appreciate the rhythms of daily life in the village.
Walk a few paces to your right just after sunrise and appreciate the stillness in the piazza.
Venture out a few hours later and notice the older ladies doing their daily shopping. Stroll around the block in the evening and listen to the hum of the bustling trattorias.
