Away from it all
Review Submitted: August 21, 2009
Date of Stay: July 2009
A lovely house in a quiet (mostly) position with great views of the surrounding countryside, wonderful sunsets and with the twinkling lights of the small town of Sarsinna across the valley in the evenings. You can hear birds, breeze, church bells and wind. The house is well equipped, comfortable and a real home from home.
Choose your holiday time well though as with a country house comes associated problems such as the local farming co-operative starting ploughing at 6 or 7 in the morning and going on sometimes till 9 in the evening. Fortunately this only lasted 3 days. Good days to go out for the day and visit some of the beautiful small towns roundabout.
The track up to the house was the biggest problem for us, it is steep, rutted and made of gravel which is not very stable half way up a mountain. For most our stay we were only able to coax the car half way up to the house leaving the steepest part for us to climb - good for the calves! The keyholder spotted this problem as soon as he saw our car (an Audi A6 sportline). A 4 wheel drive would have been useful and we actually used the farmer's track through the field for the 2nd week as it was less rutted and more stable. An older person or one with mobility problems would have found it difficult to climb as it is steep.
They may also have had a problem with the steps down to the excellent pool. These are made from old railway sleepers and are also quite steep and there are quite a few of them. A warning about this in the info on the main page would be useful as not everyone reads the reviews.
A good holiday with a few reservations regarding type of transport and level of fitness.
Owner's Response: The villa is situated on the side of a hill with access via a track, this is suitable for most vehicles unless they have a low suspension such as sports cars,the track is a public road that has fallen into disrepair.As the house is in an agricultural area guests may experience some disturbance from harvesting and ploughing,at certain times but usually for 2-3 days at most. If you want a holiday away from it all with genuine local appeal this is the place for you. The swimming pool has underwater lighting for that evening swim and is accessed by rustic steps with a handrail.Recently the track to the side of the house has been cleared by the community to encourage walkers and although not suitable for some elderly people and very small children it gives one the opportunity to walk to the village, (about 20-30 minutes ) and walk off all that wonderful pasta which is available locally at Barbarinas as a take away!
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marks the location of the property in Marche
