Villetta Fabiana - Riviera Hills/Cinque Terre Area

Accommodates 4 - 2 Bedrooms, 2 Baths

What an interesting, unusual location! And yet it’s incredibly convenient to so much. To be precise: Villetta Fabiana is an upscale property at the southern end of the Italian Riviera, about halfway between Pisa and Genoa, where Tuscany and Liguria come together. It’s a great base for the Cinque Terre and much else. The property is not on the water. On the contrary: Villetta Fabiana is located in the green hills not far from Sarzana between the delightful untouristed hilltop villages of Ortonovo and Nicola. (Get a map and check it out.) Nicola is particularly attractive, with two excellent trattorias of more than local renown.

Even though it’s pink, Fabiana has a more Tuscan country feel to it than a coastal Ligurian feel. Its owners ran Fabiana for some years as an intimate bed-and-breakfast.

What can you do from here? Well, for starters, there are the stupendous marble quarries at Carrara – this is the identical quarry from which Michelangelo ordered the marble for his Pieta and David. It’s an easy drive also to Pisa and Lucca to the southeast, Genoa and Parma to the north and northwest.

And then there’s the whole coast, from Viareggio through Forte dei Marmi, to Lerici, Portovenere, and the fabled Cinque Terre, all the way to Portofino, Rapallo, and Santa Margherita. The closest real beach, with umbrellas and sand, is at Marina di Carrara, a mere 7 kilometers away. A private tennis club, with swimming pool, is even closer. Two or three golf courses are located within 30 minutes’ drive.

This is not only a coastal region: You can find lovely mountain drives and trekking in the immediate surroundings of the Apuan Alps (a part of the Apennines) which line the coast from about 10 miles inland. Barga, located in the heart of these mountains between here and Lucca, has a spectacular opera festival in summer, and of course there’s the renowned Puccini festival at the maestro’s own estate at Torre del Lago.

The Fabiana estate itself is a 16th-century farmhouse transformed by its current owners into a luxury accommodation for themselves. They are a young couple who are extremely hospitable, there when you need them, but discreet. What they offer is a completely separate structure on their property: in effect, the guest house of the estate.

In fact, the Villetta Fabiana is really two separate structures. You come first to one “cottage” which contains within it two exquisitely furnished matrimonial bedroom suites, each with its own en-suite bath (shower only), air-conditioning, frigobar, stereo system, and satellite TV. One bedroom has its own little private terrace; the other has a private sauna. From the bedrooms you must go outside and down about 10 garden steps to the second structure, which consists of a big, fully modernized open-plan living/dining/kitchen with every possible appliance. The manicured garden contains a neat gazebo with outdoor furniture as well as an above-ground 9x9 whirlpool, more like a hot tub with a jacuzzi feature, with more outdoor furniture arranged around it. There’s even a little fitness area with some equipment for those of you who can’t live without. Laundry room shared with owners. No phone: bring your own mobile. Included in the price is daily housekeeping, plus midweek linen change, and, incredibly, a welcome supper on your evening of arrival.

We were thoroughly taken with Fabiana when we visited it recently, particularly the standard of furnishings, the beautiful garden, and the enthusiasm of the owners. Not to mention the great location and those gorgeous views.