Like all popular destinations, Tuscany lives large in our imaginations. Even those who have never been think they know exactly what it’ll be like — walking through sun-kissed vineyards with a glass of wine in your hand, delicately eating handmade spaghetti on a terrace with a view of rolling green hills, riding a bike with a wicker basket down a dusty tree-flanked lane.

Usually, however, reality doesn’t quite live up to our expectations – even in Tuscany. The skies always seem a little cloudier, the wine ever-so-slightly more bitter, than we imagined. That’s why, when I pulled up to Melia’s Tenuta di Artimino hotel in the Tuscan countryside, between Florence and Pisa, I tempered my expectations. Turns out, I didn’t need to.