You really must try this fantastic Villa if you are holidaying in Le Marche.

We've holidayed in Italy many times but never experienced a Villa like this before, its been wonderfully restored, combining some stylish original architecture, well chosen antiques and contemporary kitchens and bathrooms. The location and views are stunning and the owners bend over backwards to help you get the best of the Villa and the surrounding area.

The villa is a stone throw from the vibrant medieval village of Sarnano that has some excellent ristorante such as the osterie Le Clarisse and Scherzi e Parte, many Pizzeria, bars and even a disco, when we were there there was a local festa every night and in August there will apparently be medieval banquets, arts and crafts in the street and theatre.

The villa has a great pool, cable Tv, lots of DVDs and books, wifi and we were encouraged to pick our own vegetables and herbs from the garden. The gardens overlook the awesome Sibillini Mountains that dominate this part of the fabulous Le Marche region and are protected by a National Park. The villa owners provided us with walking and cycling itineraries but it was difficult to drag ourselves away from driving round the many ancient hill towns in this lovely area.

Wow, what a great adventure at Villa San Raffaello. A holiday full of discovering the real Italy run by a family who made us feel thoroughly welcome in truly superb accommodation. Every need was catered for and all the rooms were wonderfully finished. During our stay we wanted for nothing as all mod cons were provided. Use of the well sized swimming pool was a tremendous bonus as well as the nightly walks into town to catch the local flavours. There was plenty to keep us occupied throughout our stay with educational visits out along with long country walks. The local Sarnarnians were particularly polite at understanding our smattering of Italian when the markets were used for the weekly shop of high quality produce.

All in all we had a thoroughly enjoyed our Italian adventure and cannot wait to return. It is by far the best place that we have ever been to in Italy.