September gives you August’s sea without August’s crowds. The water is at its warmest of the year, the heat has begun to ease, the harvest is under way across the country, and from the middle of the month the beaches empty as Italian families go home. Prices fall from the peak and properties that were…
A villa holiday in Italy means renting a whole house, usually in the countryside and usually with a pool, for a week or more. It works best for families and groups, in the months either side of high summer, and in regions where the countryside is close to both towns and the sea. The three…
A private chef in an Italian villa is not a restaurant delivered to your table, and it is not a cook who lives with you for a week. In practice it is someone who arrives in the afternoon, cooks in your kitchen, serves dinner and leaves it clean behind them, usually for one or two…
Two things decide whether a group villa week is a success: the shape of the house, and agreeing about money before anyone arrives. Bedroom count is the number everyone looks at and the least useful one. What actually matters is how many bathrooms there are, whether there is more than one place to sit, and…
