Myself and a group of friends are planning to rent a villa in the Tuscany region in Sept. 2000. Any suggestions or advise on finding one? Our friend in the UK is collecting brochures now... <BR> <BR>Many thanks! <BR>

Hi, check out the villavacations.com site. This is managed by Doorways out of Bryn Mar PA. I have used them twice for small house rentals and have been quite pleased. Three weeks ago I had dinner in one of their properties, a 6 bedroom/5 bath villa in the hills overlooking Lucca. It is a beautiful property which can be let with the services of a cook - she's very good! It is owned by a holding company which also has a villa on a nearby vineyard. I also toured that, again just outside of Lucca. Not much of a view, but you can watch the wine making process. <BR> <BR>Checkout the website for pictures. Have fun. Feel free to e-mail with questions. <BR> <BR>Jennifer

we rented from a company based here in Massachusetts called the Parker Company. Their website is www.theparkercompany.com. I found them very helpful and pleasant to deal with.

Try www.initaly.com/

We had excellent luck about 18 months ago renting a fabulous apartment in Venice through Homebase Abroad. They had lots of listings throughout Italy. <BR>They are at www.homebase-abroad.com. <BR>We rented a villa outside of Florence <BR>for a month a few years back, as well as an apartment in Paris through a small agency in New York - Families Abroad - who seem to no longer be in business (my guess is that the owner has retired) - both agencies were able to give me people to call who had stayed in the properties to serve as a reference - I have done the same for people considering places that we have rented. <BR>I suggest you ask for this sort of reference before signing any contracts.

Thanks so much for the info. That definitely gives me a good start. Does anyone have any specific towns to recommend. I think we hope to do some day trips to Rome, etc. so probably the southeast area is what we will be aiming for.

We have many villa's to rent in Tuscany. Please check out the web site www.theparkercompany.com There are numerous villa's. Call me at the parker company's 800 #