candykay

I need help finding a villa in the wine country of Italy. There will be eight of us and the other wives insist on their own bathroom/shower, so that means four baths. My husband wants to cook so we need a good kitchen and he likes the Greve area. But his big insistance is that there be a restaurant within comfortable walking distance (1 km or so)AND we need to stay under $3000 (US) for the week. Any ideas?

bobthenavigator

Wow--that is a tall order--especially the 4 baths and under $3000.
Start at slowtrav.com and widen your geographic parameters outside of Chianti. Good luck !

rex

I agree that four baths will be difficult for under $3000. It will likely be listed as sleeps 12, or sleeps 16 or more.

For $3000, 16 people for a week is only about $25 a night. That means it will likely be in an area that is far less demanded than more popular locations.

Not to imply that they don't exist. My favorite villa (in France, not in Italy) has 9 bathrooms, and sleeps 22. Goes for about $10,000 a week (we negotiated down to about 8800, I think, in 2000 for our party of 16); I don't know what it would go for now (but I would be willing to look into it for anyone wanting to know more).

We thought it was the best value lodging of the entire trip.

Best wishes,

Rex

hopscotch

This must be a troll.

One km is a 15 minute walk. If you husband can't walk more than that he should take a taxi.

You only need your own bathroom if you are going to spend your whole day in it.

Going to Italy and cooking your own dinner or lunch is like -- gosh I don't have words for

joegri

We rented a villa for my family with four bathrooms, I Limoni, but it was near Lucca, about an hour from any wine country. According to the 2003 price list, it rents for $3835 in the May/June timeframe. It had six bedrooms and an ancient (15th century building), but perfectly workable kitchen. It is in the hills above Lucca with a veranda that looks over the valley to the walled village. Spectacular views, especially at night. Same view for all the bedrooms (on three floors). This villa along with many more is listed at tuscanynow.com, an organization we would highly recommend.
If you are looking for this coming summer, you are a little late and might have some difficulty in finding availability even if you find a place that suits you.
1km is about six/tenths of a mile, so not a long walk. However, I Limoni had no restaurant within walking distance.
By the way, hopscotch, one of the joys of staying in a villa is going to the local markets for food products and then having dinner in, especially with a view on the veranda like I limoni. Of course we had two gourmet chefs (one professional) in our party and the rest of us were prepdogs. Great fun.

rex

Okay, I browsed through maybe a hundred propertie on a few ites - - you'll have to decide - - do you want the features of the house? or the location? or maybe the price, and get neither of the first two.

Here is one that at least hs the house features you seek (in Umbria, not Tuscany, by the way)...

http://www.rentvillas.com/PropertyDe...CatalogId=4707

cmt

There are a lot of "wine countries" in Italy. You should be able to stay under your budget in simple accomodations in Calabria, part of which has been famous wine country since the time of ancient Greece. I don't know whether thre will be restaurants. The wines of Cirò have been well known since the area was part of Magna Grecia.

rex

Here ya go... it's only money...

http://www.viatraveldesign.com/detail/472.htm

StCirq

Just a suggestion - Italian (and European in general) houses, even if they are renovated villas, don't have 3 or 4 bathrooms. Get over your need for 4 bathrooms and you'll have a LOT more choices.

candykay

Thanks for the hints, guys. Actually, I have found some that meet the requirements except they usually don't say much about the closest restaurants and I thought maybe some of you had rented villas and knew of one. My husband walks 5 miles a day, but he likes his food close by. As for the cooking, the Food Channel is his nightly entertainment and he loves to cook.

candykay

By the way, I don't need a private bath, it's these other ladies! I'm, with ya'll on that.