Ancona holiday villa: Sasso

We had a wonderful holiday at Villa Sasso - 3 generations, 4 families, children spanning from early 20s to under 10s - there was something for everyone. The generous accommodation absorbed us all very comfortably, and the outdoor terraces, pool, and garden gave plenty of scope for everyone to pursue their own thing when they wanted to. Badminton, table tennis, and an excellent collection of DVDs meant that there was always an alternative to the ever-popular pool.

Local chef's cooking was superb, and it was very luxurious to have it brought to our house and served, without us having to think about driving back home afterwards.

Plenty to do locally, although a car essential. Numerous hilltop villages to explore, great paper museum at Fabriano (more exciting than it sounds...) and live bands performing outside in neighbouring towns in the evenings.

Would highly recommend a holiday at Villa Sasso. Everything was clean and welcoming and with a local lady on hand to answer any queries or deal with any unforeseen circumstances (one of our party broke a tooth!), we felt extremely well looked after.

A fabulous holiday to remember. We just wish it had been for longer than a week!

We were a group of eight adults and Villa Sasso was perfect for us. The house is spacious and well-appointed. The views across to the hills are breathtaking. We dutifully went on excursions to nearby towns and villages, to the stunning caves at Frasassi, but nothing matched the splendour of Villa Sasso. There was really nothing better than wandering through the orchard there, or lounging by the pool, or having dinner on the terrace with the sun going down over the valley behind us. I can't recommend it highly enough.

We stayed at villa Sasso for a week from the end of July in 2008. We went a group of good friends all with young children. There were a total of 4 families consisting of 8 adults and 9 children with the ages from under 1 to 7.

All of the information provided by the owner prior to making the booking was great - answered all the questions we had and went out of their way to sort out any extras or requests we had such as extra high chairs, travel cots and providing some catering on site. So with this information and the photos and details of the property we went ahead and booked.

We had an excellent week and everyone loved it. The Villa was in an idyllic rural setting with views over the valley and surrounded by countryside with a great pool and very good size and quality accommodation. Although in a rural setting, it was still only 30 minutes or so from Ancoda airport, and nearby shops for supplies or restaurants were only 10 minutes or so by car, and the nearest beach was about 45 minutes away.

The accommodation itself suited us very well. The villa was in really good condition and clean. It had lots of nice old character features such as big oak beams in the bedrooms but with modern decoration and with good quality fittings and facilities throughout. The large kitchen area was particularly good for cooking, eating and entertaining and opening out to the great outside space on either side for doing the same.

The pool was a bit hit with the children. It was a good size and had steps down into the shallow end at one end of the pool which was particularly useful for the youngest kids. It also was a great place to sunbathe and take in the views...

The other big hit was the outdoor traditional pizza oven. We brought pizza dough from a local pizzeria and then all the children made pizzas and the adults tried not to burn them too much!

The owner and local lady who looks after the property also arranged for some local cooks to cook a couple of meals in the villa whilst we were there. I would really recommend this - really nice to have a locally prepared meal in the villa for the adults once the children were all soundly asleep! We went for a 'regional supper' which was a great mix of traditional food and another night we went for a mix of pasta dishes. Both were very good

So all in all, I’d highly recommend Villa Sasso. We found the environment, the accommodation and the area all great, and would very much consider coming back again