JETSET: KARMA GROUP

by Sophie Yardley

Tucked away in the heart of the Tuscan countryside, you’ll discover the hidden gem that is Karma Borgo di Colleoli. This summer, I took a trip to explore this sprawling historic manor house, which has recently received a new lease of life as a luxurious fivestar resort. Tuscany is somewhere I’ve always dreamed of visiting, and my goodness, it was exactly as I had imagined. I truly felt as though I had dived headfirst into my Assouline Tuscany Marvel book, which sits pride of place on my coffee table.

The reason for my visit was due to the Square Club’s new reciprocal partnership with the Karma Group, an award-winning lifestyle and leisure club with destinations around the world. The Karma Group specialise in delivering bespoke travel experiences, and their members receive exclusive access to a worldwide collection of boutique luxury resorts, eateries and spas.

After flying into Pisa, we picked up our hire car, which despite my initial nerves, went incredibly smoothly, and made the mere 45-minute drive into the Tuscan hills to the Karma resort. The resort is ideally placed for exploring Tuscany. The wonders of Florence, Siena and San Gimignano are all within easy driving distance, and the hilltop village of Peccioli, which was voted the most beautiful village in Italy in 2024 (by Italians themselves!), is only a 20-minute drive away.

Though once settled at the resort, it’s a struggle to pull yourself away. From the minute we arrived, everything about the experience was pure luxury. The concierge helped us transport our many bags by golf buggy to our palatial suite, where there was a bottle of wine chilling for our arrival. Our suite had a view over the picturesque courtyard, looking over the rolling Tuscan hills. There are two beautiful pools hidden away beneath the Cypress trees of the resort, along with the divine I Secoli restaurant, which serves authentic Tuscan cuisine using only the freshest locally-sourced produce. We’re in Tuscany, so of course there’s also an in-house Sommelier on-hand to recommend wine pairings for your meal.

As the Karma Group specialises in curated experiences, there was plenty to get involved in at the resort, including a wine and cheese tasting and a music quiz in the grand library of the main villa. Here is where we often found ourselves post dinner – there’s a record player with hundreds of records to choose from, where we’d dance the night away whilst drinking, surprise surprise, more wine. It’s actually here where we met our new friends Francis and Mark, who we ended up going for dinner with. The evening ended at 2 am in the local pub, perhaps more accurately described as the neighbour’s front room, which must have been stuck in a time-warp as I paid for a round of drinks with a ten euro note and got change.

We whiled away our days sunbathing by the pool, drinking copious amounts of wine (the Karma Rosé is perhaps the best rosé I’ve ever had), and indulging in the most delicious dinners of pizza, pasta and steak in the courtyard restaurant. When we managed to pull ourselves away from the resort, it was to go wine tasting at the La Spinetta Vineyard. It was a true postcard of Tuscany, with the breathtaking sunsets and pure serenity of the resort making it impossible not to relax. With all that said, it’s time to pour myself a glass of wine and imagine that I’m back in the sun-drenched countryside of Italy. Cin cin!

Discover more about the Karma Group and their destinations at karmagroup.com