The villa is very large and spacious with a beautiful swimming pool and a well equipped kitchen. The view from the garden is stunning and it's very peaceful. This is the ideal place to get away from it all and discover the real heart of Italy. It's not a commercial area and you will rarely see other tourists.

Civitella Casanova is a beautiful old village with several lovely restaurants, a supermarket, butchers, bakers, two bars, florists and a few other nice shops. The local sausages made by the village butcher are exquisite and you must try Arrosticini at Macalusa. We spent many happy hours by the lovely swimming pool or cooking local produce in the fabulous kitchen. The villa is much larger than the photos suggest. There is a very comprehensive file with lots of details about restaurants, markets and things to do nearby which was very useful. The property manager is very helpfull and will go out of her way to make sure you are well looked after and have all the information you need. There is lovely wildlife in the garden and we saw pretty green lizards every day and a flock of Sand Martins which swooped down for a dip in the pool several times a day!

Our only criticisms are easily corrected by the owner. Directions to the villa need to be much more accurate especially as with late flights to Pescara, like us you may not reach the villa until the early hours of the morning and it is very hard to find in the dark. One of the bathrooms needs some work but the other two are lovely. The garden furniture looks a bit old and tired and needs replacing or a good varnish. The plant on the pergola in the garden looks beautiful but is an insect magnet! We had to sweep the patio three times a day as the fallen flowers attracted a lot of ants and the flowers on the plant attracted a lot of flies. It's the country so you expect insects but probably not the best idea to have a big plant which attracts them right outside the back door in the area where you want to sit and eat. If these small details were corrected it would be a first rate villa.

Overall we had a lovely holiday, in our favourite part of Italy and didn't want to leave!