The house
Villa Costanza is a beautiful, turn-of-the-century villa in Northern Tuscany. It sleeps 8 people, with 3 double bedrooms and a sofa
bed in the living room that sleeps 2 people. There are 2 bathrooms (one ensuite), a swimming pool, a barbecue and an outdoor pizza oven. The Starlink
internet connection is excellent.
The garden
The house is set in a large, private garden with spectacular views. In the spring, summer and autumn, the garden is full of wild flowers and wild herbs. There is a small olive grove. The stars on a clear night are amazing, and there is plenty of wildlife (crickets, bees, butterflies - and other weird and wonderful insects). There are wild boar, deer, badgers and porcupine in the surrounding forest.
The village
Villa Costanza is the perfect place for peace and relaxation. The house is located on the edge of a very quiet, medieval, hill-top hamlet
called Baccana, close to a little town called Licciana Nardi (which has cafés, shops and a restaurant. The road to Baccana is no-through, ending in the village parking square. This means that here is no noise of traffic. As you have to to leave your car in the parking square (where the road ends), you need to carry or wheel your luggage through the village to the house (a 3-4-minute walk).
What to do
There are numerous hiking trails around the neighbouring valleys, and
a hiking path leads from behind the house into the nearby forest. The
house is about 40 minutes from the Mediterranean coast (the Cinque Terre are
about the same distance) and 30 minutes or so to the Apennine peaks, with
plenty of beautiful walks in the national parks. Pisa and Lucca are 60-80 mins by car. Parma is 1.5 hours away. The local train station at Aulla Lunigiana (20 minutes from the house) provides access to other Italian cities, including Florence, Pisa, Genoa and Parma. Mountain biking, horse riding, cycling and climbing are popular local pursuits.
There are lots of good little bars, farmers’ markets, restaurants,
agriturismi and small, independent shops. Villa Costanza is located in an unspoilt, undiscovered part of
Tuscany, with very few tourists. As a result, eating out is very cheap: for
example, a ‘worker’s lunch’, locally (available to non-workers, too!) costs
just 12 euros (£10 GBP) for two courses, 1/4 litre of wine, mineral water and coffee –
and that includes service! There are numerous castles to visit locally, and a large number of pretty towns and villages.
Villa Costanza throughout the seasons
From June to September, the weather in this part of Tuscany is usually hot and sunny. Electric fans in all of the bedrooms will help to keep you cool at night. As the house is made from stone, the downstairs rooms are beautifully cool on hot days. Mosquito netting in all of the house's windows should stop you from getting bitten after dusk.
The swimming pool is available for use from mid-May until the end of September, when the weather is warm enough to heat the water in the pool. Please note that the swimming pool is not fenced (the norm in Italy).
The autumn is also beautiful, and
the local chestnut/grape-picking/olive-pressing season. Two wood-burning stoves will help to keep you warm on cooler days. Central heating is available for the winter months.
Spring arrives early in
Tuscany, with flowers emerging from February onwards. April can sometimes be surprisingly warm. May is when the temperatures start to rise substantially.
Getting to Villa Costanza
It’s a very easy, 80-minute drive (door-to-door) up the motorway from Pisa Airport to Villa Costanza. Ryanair is the cheapest and most
reliable airline, with several flights per day from London to Pisa. There are
also flights to Pisa from other UK and European airports. For those travelling from further afield, you can fly to Milan or Rome and then hire a car or take the train to Aulla Having a car is a must. Numerous car-rental companies are based at Pisa Airport, but do book well in advance for cheaper rates.
