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Owning a holiday home in Tuscany for many people has two contradicting sides – the strong pull of a place you love – that helps you slow down and be present – set against the burden of looking after a home from a distance. August’s Private Collection membership removes that contradiction. Tuscany is one of the destinations across the Signature, Premium and Prime Collections, where each member holds a share in a curated Collection of beautiful homes across Europe’s most iconic regions. That means access built around your lifestyle; the management of your homes fully taken care of by our dedicated homeowner experience team; and a community of like-minded homeowners. The result is enjoying your dream holiday home in Tuscany without the responsibilities.

There's a version of Paris every visitor knows – the walk along the Seine after dinner, the hour spent doing nothing in particular at a café table, a city that celebrates romantic atmosphere in a way few others do. It's no surprise so many people who fall for the city eventually start wondering what it would mean to own a small piece of it. What follows is the less romantic half of that decision – what buying in Paris involves, and what changes when it's done through one of August’s Collections rather than alone.

The purchase price of a holiday home in Europe is only the beginning of what it costs. Transaction costs alone can add close to a tenth of the price before a single night is spent there, and the costs of running a second home carry on regardless of how much time you spend there. August's Private Collection membership completely changes that picture – not a single property, but a curated Collection of exclusive homes across several destinations, and two ongoing costs, each of them stated openly.

This guide sets out exactly what a Private Collection membership is, how it differs from the hotel-branded original, what the membership actually includes month to month, and what it costs, so you can decide whether it's the right type of ownership for you. ‍

The best travel advice rarely comes from a guidebook. It comes from a friend who's just been somewhere, and hasn't quite unpacked yet. Our Advisory team returned from Mallorca recently in exactly that mood. After hosting an open home at the River Avon Collection's recently launched Townhouse, they came back full of favourites: some old, some newly discovered, all worth passing on. This is where to swim, where to eat, and where to spend a morning working hard enough to deserve both.

Some things are brought into a home, others are made for it. The iron inside our Prime Bastide Collection in Tuscany, forged entirely by hand, falls into the latter. Wrought Iron Luigi is a family workshop that has been shaping metal by hand for three generations, working closely with August to create bespoke pieces for our Collections. Luigi is the craftsman at the furnace; his daughter Susy shapes the design; while her children, Miriana and Antonio, carry the skill forward as the family’s third generation. What they make together is not just furniture, but a piece of the family, passed down through craftsmanship. We sat down with them to understand how a commission moves from first conversation to finished piece, and what it means to make something entirely by hand in an age of machines. What follows is their story, in their own words, and a closer look at the pieces made for Prime Bastide in Tuscany.