Former US President Barack Obama, pictured, played golf on the first day of his six-day vacation with his wife Michelle. Photo / Getty Images
Former US President Barack Obama, pictured, played golf on the first day of his six-day vacation with his wife Michelle. Photo / Getty Images
Former US President Barack Obama has already hit the golf course after arriving in Italy Friday.
He was pictured playing golf on the exclusive course of Castiglion del Bosco on the first day of a six-day holiday in Italy with his wife Michelle.
The Obamas are vacationing at the 14th century village of Borgo Finocchieto, just a 15-minute drive from the Castiglion del Bosco golf course where Barack was playing Saturday, reports Daily Mail.
According to the course's website, the Castiglion del Bosco Golf Club is Italy's only private golf club set within a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Membership to the club is by invitation only and the course was designed by Tom Weiskopf, who designed the winner of the British Open.
The Obamas arrived in Tuscany on a private plane escorted by six fighter jets and a 13-car motorcade on Friday as they continue their all-expenses-paid world tour.
On Friday, the former president and first lady touched down at Grosseto Air Base in Tuscany, their private jet accompanied by six Eurofighter Fourth Wing jets.
The couple where then whisked away in an armored Chevrolet as part of a 13-car motorcade, transporting them to their incredible Tuscan villa Borgo Finocchieto, as many Italians lined the streets to wave them as they passed.
But the family will be ensured privacy at their villa, which is a kilometer away from prying eyes on the road.
Italian authorities have even imposed a ban on wild boar hunting, just in case the former president is accidentally shot. They are expected to fly out on May 24.
The Obamas, who have been on multiple vacations since leaving the White House in January, will reportedly visit Florence and Siena during their vacation.
Resting on more than six acres of rolling hillside near Buonconvento, 45 miles south of Florence, the village of Borgo Finocchieto provides superb views of the surrounding countryside - but what's inside the villa and its attached homes is just as stunning.
According to its official website, Borgo Finocchieto - its name translates as 'village of fennel fields' - has 22 bedrooms across its five buildings.
The largest of those rooms is a colossal 800sqft 'Medici' master bedroom with its own steam room, Jacuzzi and sauna.
Obama played on the course of Castiglion del Bosco, Tuscany on Saturday, the day after he and Michelle arrived at Borgo Finocchieto. Photo / Getty Images
As well as the smaller dining spaces in the villas, there are two full-scale dining rooms that seat a total of up to 44 people, as well as outdoor dining spaces, a wine-tasting room and a wet bar.
There are also courts for fans of tennis, basketball and the Italian bowling game bocce, as well as a group spa, sauna and steam room, a swimming pool, and a gym and fitness center.
And visitors are cared for by a staff of 19, including a concierge, executive chef, wait staff, bartender and housekeepers.
Special requests can also be made to explore the surrounding countryside on horseback, by car or scooter, or even using helicopters and hot air balloons.
It's a countryside worth exploring: The verdant green fields - dotted here and there with trees and hedges, rising up into distant mountains - are beautiful enough, and have been largely unchanged for 1,000 years.
But there are also other stunning locations to explore just a short drive away, from the winding cobbled streets of Buonconvento just over a mile away to a collection of castles, mansions and other villages a short car journey away.
All of this has been made open to the Obamas, who are traveling from Milan, 197 miles northwest of the village, at the weekend.
Borgo Finocchieto first appeared on maps in Italy in 1318, when it was built by the noble Borghese family, whose members included Pope Paul V.
The fields surrounding the five-building village were farmed by peasants and sharecroppers, and by 1960 it had become home to 21 families, according to a 2007 report by The New York Times.
But it had also become run-down, with the chapel being used as a barn and livestock being kept on the ground floor of a manor house.
So in 2001, Philips - who made a small fortune as a public rights lawyer, and served as ambassador to Italy under Obama from 2014-2017 - bought it up and started reconstructing it 30,000sqft of buildings.
That proved to be an even bigger task than it sounds.
"Rebuilding was expected to be totally consistent with what was there before," Phillips told the NYT.
"If there was a window 300 years ago that had been covered up, you could put the window back, but you could not add a new window."
Thankfully, Italy has documentation on many buildings dating back centuries that details the dimensions - and sometimes even materials - of buildings.
And while the exteriors could not be changed, the interiors were allowed amendment - which meant that the chapel-turned-barn could be transformed into the four-bedroom Santa Teresa suite.
Materials for both the exterior and interior were also sourced from within the country, ensuring that, despite its new American owner, it would remain unmistakably Italian.
According to La Cure villas, visitors can rent out nine bedrooms in the main house for $7,000 per night, or all 22 bedrooms - across all five buildings - for $15,200 per night. There is a minimum three-night reservation.
Obama traveled to Italy last week to speak at the "Seeds & Chips - Global Food Innovation" summit.
There, he talked about climate change and made a pointed remark about Trump, saying people 'get the politicians [they] deserve' when they don't vote.
He has been joined by Michelle, who on Friday spoke at the summit for the Partnership for a Healthier America in Washington, DC.
She also took Trump to task, asking why his administration canceled her project to provide schools with healthier meals.
"You have to stop and think, 'Why don't you want our kids to have good food at school? What is wrong with you, and why is that a partisan issue?'" she said.
