Charlottesville, Virginia is pure Jefferson country: the heart of Albemarle County, where our most beguiling founding father was born and raised; where he farmed and built his beloved Monticello; where he read and wrote and established a university for his commonwealth that still ranks amongst the nation’s finest. The countryside is temperate, with gently rolling hills, zig-zagged with signature black fences, and blessed with lovely mountain vistas. Rolling up the drive of the historic Clifton Inn, you might well imagine the man himself in the carriage at your side, pointing out features of interest among the 100 acres that once belonged to his father, and which, in turn, were deeded to his daughter Martha upon her marriage to Thomas Mann Randolph, a governor of the commonwealth and a member of the House of Delegates and United States Congress. 

 

As you approach the handsome white-columned clapboard house, it might strike you as a relatively modest structure, especially if you’ve been visiting the nearby grand estates like Monticello and James Madison’s Montpelier. In fact, the property that is now The Clifton Inn, a luxurious Relais & Châteaux hotel featuring the area’s finest cuisine, began its days not as a Jeffersonian household, but as a commercial trading post, one of Randolph’s many business interests. Meticulously restored by the present owners with a sensibility that is both quietly stylish and keenly sensitive to the historic nature of the place, Clifton now features eighteen rooms and suites in the main house and various dependencies [thanks to a creative transformation of the former stables and carriage house,] as well as a charming country farmhouse, Collina, adjacent to the Clifton property.         

 

Befitting its Federal heritage, the inn is laid-out and furnished in restrained yet comfortable elegance. The soaring front porch of the main house opens into a gracious central foyer papered in Clifton’s bold brown signature stripe, from which flow sitting rooms, dining rooms, a delightful bar, and the breakfast room whose enchanting wall of windows makes it easy to linger long after the morning’s coffee and homemade muffins and pastries are cool.     

 

Each guest room and suite is distinct and unique. Many feature fireplaces; others, airy lofts; and still others open out onto private terraces within the gardens. Views of Monticello Mountain and Clifton’s undulating lawns and flowering gardens are natural extensions of the comfortable and un-stuffy interiors. All are furnished with American antiques set against the fine prints and strong stripes favored in the days of the inn’s origins: here you’ll find a rich Turkish rug on the gleaming heart-of-pine floor boards, there, a riot of toile; and everywhere, practical touches like writing desks and reading lamps that would deeply appeal to the Jeffersonian circle. In the dependencies, creamy white-washed walls emphasize the rustic touches of rough-hewn ceiling beams and exposed brick. Another ‘original’ touch is the carafe of Madeira in each room, encouraging residents to embrace the spirit of the age with its spirit of choice. 

 

But guests at The Clifton Inn are by no means expected to rough-it eighteenth-century style: they enjoy the modern luxuries of high-speed wireless internet, Bose sound systems, Mascioni linens and robes, spa jet showers, and Molton Brown amenities. If you can bear to leave the charms of your own guest room, lakeside trails, welcoming Adirondack chairs, a glamorous infinity pool set within an elegant canopied flagstone terrace [complete with barbeque grill,] a croquet lawn, and the area’s only clay tennis court provide plenty of options for relaxation in Charlottesville’s glorious country environment – and the attractions of downtown and dozens of historic sites are just minutes away.