The pleasures in — and above — Tuscany are enhanced when a new private service whisks you to Italy’s lush wine region.

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An early-morning hot-air-balloon ride over Tuscany is like stepping back in time. The mist in the low valleys obscures the sight of electrical wires, the sounds of sputtering Fiats fade to silence and the red-tiled roofs of the villas stand out in sharp relief against the green fields. As you drift quietly in the balloon’s wicker basket 700 feet above the Italian countryside, it’s as though you’ve returned to the Renaissance, when a local inventor named Leonardo da Vinci was sketching plans for fantastical flying machines. After floating for an hour according to the wind’s capriciousness, with a bird’s-eye view of woodlands, vineyards and darting deer, quick blasts from the propane burner lower the gondola. You touch down in whichever farmer’s field is handiest for landing, and the colorful pilots of the balloon company, Vastano Mongolfiere, holler in Italian and spread a checkered tablecloth atop the upturned gondola. With a flourish, they pop a bottle of chilled champagne. It’s 8:30 on a postcard-perfect June morning. Welcome to Italy.

La Dolce Vita

Despite featuring more seating, movie options and bathrooms than a hot-air balloon, summer air travel to Tuscany has typically been a hellish undertaking worthy of Dante. With few direct connections from the U.S., flying to central Italy involved a transatlantic flight to an overcrowded European hub, then a hassle-filled commuter jet to Florence. Erratic schedules, interminable delays and wayward luggage meant passengers weren’t exactly in a laid-back vacation mood upon arrival. Not anymore, though, thanks to Lufthansa’s Private Jet service. A partnership that blends the German behemoth’s regular long-haul flights with the private services of the Warren Buffett–owned NetJets, the new U.S.-to-Tuscany route is all about posh streamlined convenience: Clients fly Lufthansa’s business or first class to Frankfurt, Munich or Zurich, then board a NetJets aircraft that flies them directly to their final destination. There are no delays at customs, and a car service will fetch you on both sides of the Atlantic.

This unlikely union is the result of Lufthansa’s expanding interest in the top tier of the aviation market, as more and more customers are willing to pay a premium for perk-laden, stress-free rides. It coalesced as the bottom-line-conscious, 81-year-old airline, the second-largest in Europe, sought to avoid the massive startup costs associated with building a private fleet from scratch. “We stepped in, but in a very low-risk way,” says Gerald Wissel, global head of Lufthansa Private Jet. “We found an operator who met our standards. NetJets has homogeneous aircraft, with identical interiors for each, along with the right size fleet.”

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