Chic Urban Retreat in Monteriggioni
- Guests: 23
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…The beds are quite comfortable, and the bedrooms are such that you can use them to meet whatever your sleeping needs – open windows and morning light with the sounds of howling wolves in the distance at night, closed windows and near complete darkness even when the sun it out, individual AC units to adjust to your preferred temperature, and impressive noise insulation in case you sleep in a little more than others. Supermarkets in the area are easy to get to in order to stock the house if you want to cook (highly recommend Esselunga with underground parking and a wide selection of most everything you could want), and restaurants in the area were fantastic (highly recommend 4 Elementi and Montaccolle!!) and only a short 6-14 minute drive through the winding roads in the hills above the town. And one of our favorite aspects of the home was that it made it convenient to see so much of Tuscany from our central location – 15 minute drive to the train station (and then a 1 hour ride to the center of Florence), 45 minute drive to the Florence Airport, 90 minutes from Sienna and Volterra and San Gimignano, 60 minutes to La Spezia and then an 18 minute train ride from there to Cinque Terre, 30 minutes to the walls and bike riding around Lucca (where we highly recommend a visit to Tenuta Adamo winery for a tasting), 50 minutes to Pisa… Or if you just want to spend time enjoying the property and the house, this is the right villa – several outdoor seating areas to enjoy coffee / wine and a good book, relaxing pool with views of the valley below and plenty of lounge chairs to enjoy the sun, or enjoy a walk along the area’s roads on which you can explore the nearby villages of Massa, Cozzile, or Colle di Buggiano. The perfect Tuscan getaway!
…We had 4 adult couples (over 60) and each of us had our own “apartment” that gave some privacy within the villa. The apartments were spacious with its own amenities (washer, refrigerator, multiple bathrooms, living room etc..). Every one of the couples had rooms that overlook the sea with balconies that we used all the time. The salt water pool always gave us a great refresher in the afternoon. The items inn the villa were a bit dated but were great for our purposes.
The service provided by Giacomo and Francesca of weekhomes.com was second to none. They assisted us in getting tours of Pompei and Herculaneum, a private chef for a dinner one night, a private charter boat for a day and we even ordered groceries that stocked the villa before we arrived. We can have been happier with the service provided by all those vendors. Every person we met with went out of their way to make us feel comfortable and made the vacation such a memorable one.
The only difficulty was one you find everywhere on the Amalfi coast. Stairs, stairs and more stairs. There is over 170 steps down from the street above and over 200 stairs to the street below. This may sound weird but we did get used to the steps as its everywhere on the coast. The benefit of the walk down is a great restaurant with wonderful owners that treated us like royalty. Carrying our suitcases was a challenge on the way in, but like every other service, we were able to hire someone to help carrying our bags out. Full disclosure, the stairs were worth the benefit of privacy and the view!!
I would highly recommend weekhomes.com as a great service provider. We will use them again when we travel to Italy.
…With the villa built into the cliff, the views of the ocean are spectacular and, as mentioned in the description, the walk down to the private flat rocky area at the ocean is steep with many stairs, but certainly manageable if you are moderately fit. Stairs up to the street are also manageable, and fewer. The location, private access to the sea and pool were well worth the stay for us. You can pre-arrange a water taxi to come to your private docking area and take you to local areas as well as to Positano, which we used several times. The grounds (with lemon trees and other beautiful plants) and pool are meticulously maintained and the pool is cleaned and monitored daily. The pool was a welcome amenity when the ocean was rough for swimming and snorkeling.
Inside the villa, the living area is bright, spacious and well suited for a group of 6 with ample seating and views out across the ocean. The bedrooms also are spacious with each having an ensuite bathroom which we appreciated. Sleeping area in the lower level is not optimal although there is a pull out couch. The kitchen is very small and is not suitable for more than one person preparing food at the same time due to space constraints. This was a minor issue for us as we mainly only ate breakfast and lunch at the villa with minimal cooking. There are ample wonderful restaurants in the area for dinner-we loved every night out and you cannot go wrong with restaurant choice and most within reasonable walking distance. The outdoors space on the terrace is very large and is well covered for shade, especially needed for us during our stay July 16-23, 2022. We spent the majority of our time outdoors due to the glorious, although hot, weather.
From a service perspective, a housekeeper came twice during our stay to clean which was wonderful to have and she did a great job. Luca is the on-site staff representative who was wonderful and certainly enhanced our experience. He was EXTREMELY responsive to texts and very helpful when we first arrived (late) and were trying to get our bearings and source food for the evening. He also helped us figure out the water taxi and boat trip to Capri for the day (which came directly to our villa to pick us up). Luca is a star and is a genuine, warm individual who works hard to make sure your stay is top notch. Our whole family adored him! In addition, Giacomo at WeekHomes was very responsive when we were planning our stay and during our stay when needed. All in all, the service for the Villa Sunset was excellent and far exceeded our expectations. We rate the place as a 4.5/5 with the kitchen being the limiting factor for a 5/5. That said, we would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a quiet and tranquil place to spend quality time with family, enjoying the outdoors and all that the Amalfi coast has to offer, with the option to head into the busier areas/towns if desired. Such a wonderful and memorable holiday experience for us and we look forward to returning in the future.
… The additional bed area uses sofa beds, so be conscious of that if the people using it have back issues. The beds in the bedrooms are a little flimsy, but comfortable.
The villa is one of two which share the pool and the swimming platform by the sea. This worked really well for us and we hardly saw the people in the other villa. The pool and swimming platform are great, and as others have said – being able to have water taxis collect you from your villa is amazing.
We found the kitchen a bit limited. There is a fair amount of crockery and cooking pans, utensils etc, but the kitchen is small and can only really fit one person at once to do any cooking. There is a decent bbq outside, but in a villa of this size and for up to 8 people there should really be more kitchen space and a much bigger fridge (or second fridge).
If you do plan on cooking I would strongly advise stocking up on essentials for the week at a bigger supermarket before arriving at the Amalfi Coast. Local shops are good but inevitably small and have a relatively limited range and are more expensive than a bigger supermarket. We came via Pompeii and stocked up at a supermarket there first.
If you are driving then you can certainly fit a small car in the driveway, but would struggle to get anything big in there. We chose not to have a car but found the walk 5 minutes to the bus stop was fine when wanting to go somewhere by road rather than boat. The road seems a bit scary at first, but in reality traffic is slow and everyone is watching out for things coming the other way, so it feels safe. The bus service is good and cheap, and pretty regular (with timetables online). I would however recommend going by boat whenever you can (Positano €50 one-way).
Like anywhere in that area of Italy at that time of year there are lots of mosquitos, so you do need to have mosquito repellent and coils to avoid being bitten. The good thing is that the bites don’t last long or hurt too much! We happened to be there for the annual emergence of flying ants and it was amazing seeing them all come out in their thousands and flying away. It only lasted a few hours, but is not for the squeamish.
Finally Giacomo was very helpful In making the booking arrangements and responsive to messages and questions. I would be very happy to book with Giacomo and WeekHomes again.
As others have said Luca is great and incredibly helpful in quickly answering questions, offering advice, helping with bookings and being patient with indecisive tourists like us. He is a huge asset to WeekHomes and helped make the stay at this great villa a really great trip for all of us.