Many people have asked us how we found our villa and we told them Rentvillas.com tailored a villa to our needs. We gave Jannah at Rentvillas.com a personality portfolio of our group, and she came up with Villa Piero! She nailed it! It was perfect for our group!

Our group of 8 (October 8-15) had a fantastic time at Villa Piero! The villa and its surroundings are absolutely beautiful. It was our first adventure of driving in Italy (we used a GPS system). The directions were good to the villa. The first time making it up that mountain on the gravel road to the villa was a bit intimidating, but it soon became second nature. Nicola, Rosa and Sara were there to greet us with big smiles. They were more than hosts and hostesses, they became our Italia family. We endeared ourselves to them, their home, their country and their culture! We had asked for a pizza night the first night we arrived at Villa Piero and it was a perfect welcoming dinner! Nicola makes homemade dough and Rosa makes her own sauce and all the home grown vegetables that she grilled. Each person made their own specialized pizza! And, every morning, Nicola would make sure that he was up to start our mornings with cappuccino! We would take day trips from the villa, either by car or train. We went to Anghiari (which is approximately a 25-minute drive from the villa); Siena (by car); Florence (by train); Asissi and Perugia (by train) and Cortona (by car…we took the back way through the country roads from the villa to Cortona). We were also fortunate to make the Tuscany Wine Festival held in Arezzo! Arezzo is a charming city and it became our main thoroughfare for grocery shopping, a night out for dinner, and the international food fair held on Fridays. We were not sure about the remoteness of this villa, but we ended up liking the peacefulness and fell in love with the city of Arezzo. The train station in Arezzo was very convenient and was our network for traveling on our day trips. And, the Avis rent-a-car was right across from the train station.

We loved our nights together at the villa getting together to cook our dinner with the wine flowing! The kitchen is a professional chef’s kitchen and we had plenty of room for all the congregating in the kitchen area. Our favorite was sitting around the big table in the dining room (by the fireplace) eating, drinking and socializing with Italian music in the background. We ate inside as the weather was a bit chilly in mid-October. Rosa made a spectacular dinner for one of our guest’s birthday! She started out with at least 10 different appetizers, pasta, a pork roast, and a fish dish for our vegetarian in the group and ended with a delicious pineapple cream birthday cake and a bottle of champagne for the birthday girl! There are several areas for socializing outside the villa including a foosball table, ping pong, swimming (it was too cold in mid-October for our group0 to swim) and there were several sitting areas just to relax and watch the sunset!

The only complaint we had was the beds are hard. It would be wonderful if they upgraded the mattresses. Also, we suggest with large groups that you stagger your showers as the last person showering would always run out of hot water. There is no dryer, just the washing machine! They provided a clothes line and clothes pins! We Americans adapted quickly!

We found it difficult to say goodbye to Nicola and his family as they became our family! They have a compassion for their guests and made all of us feel welcome and at home!

The whole vacation experience was so enjoyable...from the personal service of Rent Villas.com to the villa owners. It was the trip of a lifetime!

Diane

California