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Home > Countryside: Tuscany/Umbria


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Sample itinerary for Tuscany

Villa Ida - Tuscany

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Accommodates 10 -- 5 bedrooms -- 4 baths

Whenever we inspect a house, first things come first. We don't even begin taking photos of a place before checking for certain essentials. Thus, the presence or absence of a trash compactor and satellite TV are not the very first things I look at! I don't even allow myself to look at the view. More important are the fundamentals: comfortable mattresses; good hot water and water pressure; decent reading lamps; a serious, responsible, owner. So often, I walk away so disappointed that I don't bother to turn the camera on.

What a wonderful sensation, therefore, when we first viewed Villa Ida. We couldn't believe our eyes. The mattresses could not be better. Lighting is excellent everywhere. Bedrooms are spacious, airy, and almost equal in quality, making the house excellent for couples traveling together. There are mosquito screens not only on all bedroom windows, but on ALL the windows, doors, and French doors in the house. Furnishings are lovely throughout. In certain cases they're elegant, perhaps a little too "Baroque" , but one can't argue with their good taste and genuine comfort.

The location? Ideal. About equidistant from Florence and Siena. The closest villages are Montespertoli and Certaldo, both with everything: restaurants, shops, banks, post office, internet points, and so on. The upper town of Certaldo, "Certalto Alto", is one of the jewels of Tuscany. The easiest way to get to Florence is by frequent bus from Montespertoli, although the presence of the huge parking garage beneath the Florence train station makes taking the car into the city relatively easy -- you've just got to be able to handle the traffic.

The countryside in this part of Tuscany is glorious, and the views from Villa Ida are particularly enchanting, especially from its lovely swimming pool. Plus: the property is right off its tiny, untrafficked, paved access road, meaning no 5-mile drives down a semi-maintained dirt road to get there. You're right there.

Villa Ida's ground floor consists of a barrel-ceilinged double living room/entry hall separated into its two parts by a gracious brick-and-stone arch. Furnishings include two sofas, Oriental carpets, an upright piano, big decorative fireplace, stereo/CD, and TV. The kitchen downstairs (there's also one upstairs) has a big fridge/freezer, dishwasher, microwave, 5-burner stovetop, conventional oven, and is big enough for a dining table seating 10 comfortably.

Also downstairs: Up 2 steps from the living room, a barrel-ceilinged bedroom with screened French doors, indivisible matrimonial bed with excellent bedding, a capacious armoire, good lighting (as everywhere), and air-conditioning. A second bedroom on this level, with ununifiable twin beds, is equally spacious, with all the amenities, but a ceiling fan rather than A/C. Each of these bedrooms has its own hall bathroom (in one case across part of the living room), brand-new, with big stall showers, and there's a laundry room as well, off one of the bathrooms.

Upstairs you'll find Villa Ida's even larger, more formally furnished salon with decorative fireplace and enjoying lovely country views. A separate formal dining room seats 8-10, and a well-equipped smaller but full kitchen is located on this level as well. A matrimonial bedroom (indivisible bed) has its own bathroom en-suite, with shower. Two other bedrooms, one with air-conditioning, both with ununifiable, excellent-quality twin beds, share a lovely bathroom with shower.

The owners of Villa Ida live on site, in an attached but completely separate and independent tower wing. They are unobtrusive and don't use the pool, but they are there when you need them.

Plans include DVD, satellite TV, and internet connection. We can't guarantee all of these, so ask at time of booking if their presence or absence is a deal breaker. A housekeeper can be arranged for cleaning, personal laundry and ironing, and childcare - but not cooking. We know a very good chef in Chianti whom you can contact directly regarding meal arrangements at the villa.

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