LUXURY HOLIDAY VILLAS IN ITALY, TURKEY AND SPAIN

Tuscany conjures up so many images, the list is endless. From the awe inspiring Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, to the medieval hilltop towns, the beaches of the Maremma National park and the exclusive peninsula of Monte Argentario, not to mention the food.

If you are looking for private Italian villas or more specifically one of our Tuscany villa rentals, we offer a wide selection of carefully chosen vacation villas in Tuscany. We have villas in Tuscany of all sizes, so whether you’re a couple, a group of couples or a large family, we will have a Tuscany villa for you.

The renaissance cities are all well known (Florence, Siena, Pisa, San Gimignano) even to first time travellers to Italy and in peak season, despite offering many hidden gems, can be stifling and busy. If you aren’t tied to school holidays then there is so much more than just pretty countryside within reach of our villas with pools in Tuscany. There are ruins, Etruscan museums, necropoli, vineyards, festivals and galleries in places you might not expect but will take pleasure in discovering. One of our favourite festivals is in the charming, historic hilltop town of Anghiari. Southbank Sinfonia is invited to be the resident orchestra each July at the Anghiari Festival in Tuscany. The festival is warmly supported by the community in this historic hilltop village and also attracts many friends of the orchestra from the UK.

The popularity of Tuscany villas hasn’t spoilt this remarkable region and the daily flights into Pisa, Florence and Bologna have allowed the quality and quantity of our villas in Tuscany to increase. You’ll be amazed that once you leave the cities, the country roads are almost always empty and you’ll feel right at home with the friendly locals. The relaxed Tuscan way of life with its diet rich in fresh seasonal produce, grilled game and organically reared meat is hard to ignore, and if you enjoy your food then you will enjoy equally eating out or cooking at your Tuscany villa. If you get the chance, visit the Fattoria Lischeto near Volterra for his pecorino cheese and the Le Macchie farm near Pisa for his salami for the ultimate in Tuscan delights.

With the wealth obtained from the vineyards and associated industries Tuscany has become one of the richest regions in Italy and many families have begun to re-invest in their large Tuscany villas in the countryside with the style and aplomb of Tuscan nobility. Due to some of the strictest rules for renovation in Europe many of the Tuscany villas have become boutique hotels rather than family homes, to pay for the expensive and architecturally accurate renovations. Whatever previous ideas you had about villas in Tuscany, we are sure you will enjoy the different kinds of accommodation we have available.

Tuscany has become a heartland for fashion as much of the catwalk designs begin their life on the design tables of companies near Prato, Florence, Arezzo and Empoli and this means a growth in outlet stores for companies such as Prada, Gucci and Ferragamo. Our luxury villas in Tuscany provide the perfect base to return to following a day scouring local boutiques and shops.

Our Top Tips
1 – Visit Florence: outside of the summer months is the best time to visit. Don’t miss the Duomo, Uffizi and Boboli gardens. At the end of the day go to Piazza Michelangelo and watch the sun set over the city.
2 – Wine tasting: With Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Vino nobile Montepulciano, Vin Santo, Vernaccia and many others, you must take some time to visit a vineyard and do a little tasting in the area around your Tuscany villa. It makes the choice of wine with dinner a lot more exciting!
3 – Shopping: Italy is known worldwide for fashion and while Milan may be its spiritual home, Tuscany is where many of the items are made. Empoli, Prato and Lucca are the best areas to consider.
4 – Dining out: The world’s most popular cuisine is Italian. Its fresh flavours, simple combinations of locally sourced ingredients and traditional method of cooking mean that every meal is an exploration of culture. Tuscany in particular loves game: Wild boar features heavily in season and the famous Fiorentina steak is ordered by the “etto” (gram-weight) and served on wooden chopping boards with rucola and parmesan.
5 – Relaxation: So many people come to Tuscany to do “the tourist thing” that they forget that this is a holiday and the magic that is worked on you by the tranquillity, the fresh clean air, the captivating views and the art of simple Tuscan living are the best reasons for coming here year after year. A stay in one of our villas in Tuscany is the best way of combining all of these elements.

Anyone visiting one of our villas in Umbria, in the green heart of Italy, will be captivated by the beauty of its lush countryside and abundance of medieval towns and villages perched on gently rolling hills.

Umbria’s central location, peace, rural simplicity, history, art and culture are some of the many reasons why our Italian villas with pools in Umbria remain so popular.

Whether you regularly choose a luxury villa in Umbria or are travelling to Umbria for the first time, there is plenty to occupy your time in Italy’s best kept secret. For those who want the mix of culture, history, and modern shopping that Florence offers, but like to avoid the high prices and oppressive heat of the city-centre in summer, Perugia, Amelia, Terni and Foligno are excellent alternatives.

Perugia has everything a shopaholic could wish for (including the Perugina chocolate outlet shop!), all set on a hilltop in Etruscan surroundings. It also has the only external escalators in Italy as the hills were so steep and it made more sense to have them. Assisi is a centre for pilgrimage the world over and is a few short miles south of Perugia and well worth a trip.

Although the region is extremely rural, there are many luxury villas in Umbria, all with pools. In fact many of the Villas in Umbria are second homes with the owners also living there outside the main holiday season which often helps to add charm and charater to our properties.

Similar to Tuscany, each of the Umbrian hill top towns basks in the sun, the gently rolling hills flower with poppies, vetch and wild thyme in May, fields burst with sunflowers in June, olive groves dot the hillsides and even one or two vineyards add a note of colour in the southern areas. Try the Sagrantino di Montefalco as it is unique, the vines won’t grow anywhere else.

Passito a type of sweet red desert wine is also made across Umbria but the more famous whites from Orvieto and full bodied reds from Torgiano also hit the spot. A tip? Try the red wine from the Fanini estate near Petrignano del Lago as it is a Montepulciano so called “Super Tuscan” but can’t be called that because the Cantina is in Umbria even if 90% of the vines aren’t.

Abruzzo and Le Marche remain largely unexplored. Each offer spectacular scenery and hilltop towns and villages, as well as ski resorts and miles of beautiful coastline. Abruzzo produces some of Italy’s finest wines and the cuisine in both regions is some of the best to be found in the whole of Italy.

Despite being a relatively new holiday destination our villas with pools in Abruzzo are of the standard and quality that our clients have come to expect from an Ilios Travel holiday.

Italian villas in Abruzzo offer an immensely varied and stunningly beautiful landscape, dominated by majestic mountains, with the Gran Sasso, the highest peak in the Apennines, giving way to deep wide valleys, olive groves and vineyards below.

Our Abruzzo villas are situated between the snow-capped mountains and the Adriatic coast, and are within driving distance of Rome. Birthplace of Ovid (the famous Roman poet) and Gabriele D’Annunzio.

Only a two hour drive from our Abruzzo villas is the city of L’Aquila which until the end of the second world war was completely encircled by city walls. Its’ basilica, castle and fountain with 99 spouts beckon. Spread your wings and try the caves at Ripe, the 16 ski runs at Campo Felice, the archeological treasure trove around the lake of Capestrano and Ovid’s birthplace Sulmona for its wonderful civic museum. Of course you may fancy hunting for dragon eggs in Atessa or having a look around pop singer Madonna’s birthplace in Pacentro.

Abruzzo, like most regions, has many festivals. Pretoro has the Miracle of the Wolf of San Domenico and at Cocullo the well-known procession of the snake-charmers attracts thousand of people. Religious tradition is often combined with paganism as memories of stories are handed down from the past during the Farchie, a great fire commemoration at Fara Filiorum Petri. Take your camera to the exuberant multicoloured flag procession of the Banderesi at Bunchiniano.

Abruzzo is rich in handicrafts with many towns specialising in a single skill: the wood carvings at Pretoro, the wrought iron of Guardiagrele, the ceramics at Rapino, the blankets and carpets at Taranta Peligna, the Tombolo lace and the golden filagree in Pescocostanzo and Scanno. The majolicas of Castelli are unmissable; Castelli has been the crucial centre for Italian ceramic art for more than 3 centuries. You can watch the artisans at work producing outstanding pieces of art. You cannot visit the area without a souvenir from Castelli.

Le Marche remains largely unexplored and offers spectacular scenery and hilltop towns and villages, as well as ski resorts and miles of beautiful coastline.

From May to September the small towns of Le Marche celebrate their bounty with a wide range of festivals. The town squares see marquees, open air dinners and plenty of merrymaking. We recommend Sassoferato for wild boar, Staffoli for prosciuto.

Cingoli – a 1.5 hour drive from one of our villas in Le Marche has the most festivals of all with one a month dedicated to polenta, Verdicchio wine, pecorino cheese & ham and melon. Norcia is renowned for its truffles but smaller Acqualagna is easier to get to, easier to park in and has an equally large supply of restaurants featuring the local black truffle!

The rich and famous head for the beaches of Rimini, then south for Pesaro and the Riviera del Conero. Dining at the exclusive restaurants of Porto Recanati and Senigallia. Macerata may not be the capital of the region but it is centrally located and has a real love of opera. The open-air opera festival at Macerata’s Sferisterio stadium (rated as one of the finest open amphitheatres in the world) with a seating capacity of 3000 presents an annual festival at the end of July. Recent years have seen performances of Turandot, Aida and Mozart’s Magic Flute.

Just 70 kms from one of our villas in Le Marche is the capital, Ancona. The city’s art museum houses works by Titian, Lotto and Crivelli although it is better known for its modern art collection. Not to be missed is the cathedral which was built on the site of a 3rd Century BC temple dedicated to Venus and is an ornate blend of Byzantine, Roman and Gothic styles.

Offering so much more to the visitor than just Rome, Lazio is often over-looked by travellers. Being more famous in Europe for its Football Club than its beautiful private Italian villas with pools, Lazio holds a subtle appeal for the more detached traveller. You will discover that because of its location, many of the noble Romans built amazing villas in Lazio as somewhere to escape to when the city heat became oppressive in August. The Pope was no exception and the Vatican now owns quite a few, unfortunately not for rental to those outside of the clergy.

The region covers almost the entire geographic centre of the country. Lazio links the rich and prosperous North of Italy to the poorer mostly forgotten agricultural South and its coastline stretches from the Southern point of Tuscany’s chic Monte Argentario, all the way to the outskirts of modern Naples, in Campania. Lazio is a fascinating region with beautiful Castles, stunning lakes with shoreline restaurants, mountains, ravines, Etruscan ruins, Roman ruins and art cities. The seemingly unending beaches of Ostia, San Felice, Gaeta, Sabaudia and Tarquinia add the sounds of the surf to a region where every road yields a new surprise and awe inspiring view. In fact, the exclusive private Villa Adele is within walking distance of San Felice Circeo and has some of the best sea views imaginable.

While all the well-known sites may be in Rome: The Vatican; the Colosseum; the Spanish Steps; the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon to name but a few, there are more than enough places of interest outside the city to satisfy even the most adventurous holidaymakers. Lazio has long resisted outside influences and even if you don’t have a desire to explore you will be entranced at every turn as you discover volcanic springs, the gardens of Tivoli, the geranium festooned whitewashed houses of Itri and Sperlonga, and the splendid isolation of Rieti. The Etruscan ruins at Cerveteri and Tuscania vie with those at Tarquinia, while the hill top splendour of Viterbo and Civita Castellana will amaze and astound. Just don’t forget to stop once in a while and enjoy the wines of Frascati and the Castelli Romani!

North east of Rome is where Emperor Nero and later Vespasian had their palaces and the mountains near Rieti supply Rome with its mineral water even today. The Sabine area is only an hour north of Rome and is also close to the main southern Umbrian towns of Orvieto, Terni and Spoleto.

Unlike some regions, Lazio has a restaurant or trattoria on almost every road and in every hamlet. Romans often lake long weekends in the country and dining out is more than just a necessity, it is almost the regional pastime. Shopping in Lazio is easy and there are many outlet shops selling high fashion at reduced prices. We recommend trying the lakes, Bracciano, Anguillara and Bolsena, Italy’s largest volcanic lake. Their unspoilt natural beauty captivated many hearts and the Castello Odescalchi on Lago Bracciano is where Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were married in 2006.

South of Rome leads to mile upon mile of unspoilt beaches and National Parks, culminating around Monte Circeo, and the town of San Felice Circeo, on a small promontory below the lidos and lagoons of Southern Lazio. If the spectacular sea-views, golden sand dunes and beaches are not enough during your villa holiday in Lazio, just a few minutes drive along the coast brings you to the port of Terracina, where ferries depart for the beautiful islands of Ponza and Ventotene, with traditions all of their own.

The region of Campania is perhaps most famous for the stunning Amalfi coastline stretching between Sorrento and Salerno – villages cascading down the cliff faces and plunging dramatically into the sea. Naples is the capital of the region but you cannot overlook Caserta, Benevento, Salerno and Avellino, or the enchanting islands of Capri, Ischia and Procida. This is an area which is extraordinarily rich in culture with the classical remains at Herculaneum, Pompei and Paestum. From more recent history, the baroque Royal Palace in Caserta is not to be missed either. The spectacular natural scenery of this area is also not to be overlooked with the mountainous parks around Mount Vesuvius and along the Cilento coast. A drive or a boat trip along the Amalfi Coast is a must (although the drive is not for the faint-hearted!).

The main towns of the Amalfi Coast are all connected really well by public transport (boats and buses), and there are numerous ferry crossings over to the islands from Sorrento. Sorrento is also one of the stations on the rural train service – the Circumvesuviana, which as the name suggests, goes around Vesuvius. The town of Sorrento is a bustling, cosmopolitan city with a wide array of pavement cafes, bars, restaurants and shops. The narrow streets of the old centre are filled with charming souvenir stalls and boutique shops alike. Just a short walk down the hill (or a quick bus ride) will bring you to the port of Sorrento where all the boat trips and ferries depart from. Beaches are few and far between in this area because of the rocky nature of the coastline. Sorrento has adapted here and they have bathing platforms instead which are fantastic.

Positano is one town which you must not miss out on – the traffic free centre is a myriad of winding alleyways, steps and alcoves which provide welcome shade from the sun. Because there are no cars in the town centre you can expect to do a fair amount of walking up steps and hills, but this does nothing to detract from the exclusive, glamorous, but still traditional feel that the town has. If you are lucky enough to be staying in the town centre you will find that porters are available to help you with your luggage for a small fee. The fine shingle beach is one of the few along this coast and you will find numerous boat trips and excursions depart from here.

Amalfi’s main square is the picture perfect place for a relaxing aperitif – the background of the beautifully tiled Duomo is spectacular. Limoncello is the order of the day here – produced locally in the many terraced citrus orchards which dominate the cliff faces in this area. The small public beach is often crowded but there are numerous coves and rocky inlets along this coast.

Don’t forget to go above Amalfi into the lush green hills and explore Ravello with its breathtaking views, the stunning Villa Rufolo and if you’re there in the summer you can experience the music festival in honour of Wagner.

This is a region which will draw you back again and again, and there is so much to see and do there that your holiday will fly by!

Along with our Italian villas we also offer comfortable and airy apartments in Italy. We feature apartments in Rome (the eternal city), Venice (la Serenissima)and Florence (Renaissance gem) as well as city apartments in Empoli (medieval walled), Perugia (Capital of Umbria) and Siena (home of the Palio horse race).

Each serviced apartment is off the main thoroughfare so as to afford a little peace and quiet. However, this is Italy after all and as such it is never completely quiet. When you are living in a town centre in your own apartment you cannot expect the tranquillity of the suburbs or of one of those private villas with pools. The owners of these well situated monuments to Italian style and passion are not obsessed with money, and care more about their hospitality in typical Italian fashion. Effusive, welcoming and charming are characteristics that we insist upon!

The cities we have chosen to feature were selected not only for their reputation but also because they are cities which have an airport with direct links to the UK, as well as having good public transport systems, so the adventurous can travel by bus, coach or train to other places without the need to hire a car. Cities bursting with historical significance, cities that demand your love, capture your soul and leave you yearning to return. Each is as individual as a snowflake. Enjoy the wealth of architecture, statuary, churches, towers, cobbled streets, hidden piazzas, museums, parks and art at a sensible pace and relax into Italian culture.