A Villa in Vitolini

It didn't take long to get from Florence airport to our villa in Vitolini, near Vinci. The instructions were excellent and it took us just over an hour including a stop in the supermarket to stock up on all the essentials like food, water and of course some vino and a few beers.

The villa, called "Il Mulinetto del Lica" was gorgeous, set in a valley, surrounded by greenery with a lovely pool and sundeck. The inside of the villa was really modern and split on two levels with the kitchen and living room area on the ground floor and steps up to the bedroom area, which had a huge arched window looking out on to the countryside. There was also a door which led straight out to the pool area from the bedroom.





The caretaker of the villa, Tina was really friendly and helpful. She spoke great English (luckily, as our Italian isn't up to much) and showed us around the place, then invited us to join her, the owner and a couple of others for a glass of wine and some bread and cheese, which was nice.

On Sunday we had a lazy day by the pool, relaxing in the sun, eating pizza, pasta, bread and olives and drinking Italian wine and beer.





We both had a swim in the pool - our first and last swim of the holiday as it was absolutely freezing! I've been in cold pools before, but this one literally took your breath away.

Unfortunately we found that our location wasn't as perfect as we originally thought it was when we realised that the evening before both of us had been eaten alive by mosquitos.

For the remainder of our stay we burned mosquito coils, coated ourself in insect repellent from the late afternoon onwards and stayed inside as soon as the sun went down. At the end of the first few days I counted a total of 20 bites, including one that was almost the size of the palm of my hand on the back of my leg.

Despite the villa and the stting being absolutely lovely, this is one reason that I wouldn't come back again. I've travelled through areas in the world that have malaria, but never have I been bitten as much as I have this week. Arghhh! Perhaps it was due to the fact that it was more wet & humid in this area of Italy in September than usual and because it was in a valley surrounded by trees.