We’ve booked holiday homes many times through this site and Pete and Jools’ Casa della Zia was certainly the most welcoming and accommodating of any I can remember.
The house is perfectly situated for exploring the highlights of Abruzzo, and many spectacular sights are less than an hour away, but the real bonus is its location with panoramic view of a valley, two hillside towns, and impressive mountains. From the terraces and splendid pool, we witnessed shooting stars, bats, owls, and firework displays, and the sunrise can be seen without even getting out of bed.
The house is equipped and decorated like a real home, not just a holiday rental, and included everything we needed to live comfortably for our two week stay. We are very keen cooks and the kitchen was perfect for bringing back market produce and preparing Abruzzese-inspired meals. We very much appreciated the washing machine, large refrigerator, reliable internet connection, and oscillating fans.
The pool was a pleasant surprise, being much larger than I expected, and with a wonderful view all around. There are also three sets of lounge furniture and umbrellas dotted around the site, which provided much needed shade during the heat wave we experienced.
The real keys to the success of this accommodation are its hosts, Pete and Jools, who live in the nearby house but who provide as much privacy, freedom, advice, and support as any guest could wish. I would imagine that if complete solitude was what a guest wanted, they could spend one or two weeks here without ever seeing or hearing their on-site hosts, but we enjoyed getting to know both and were lucky enough to share two meals together under the stars. On a few occasions, we made suggestions that might improve the experience for future guests and then returned from an excursion to find that what we asked for had been done during the day while we were out. They did research for us, booked a table at a local restaurant, and even offered to drive us to local venues if we didn’t want to drive ourselves.
It is not easy to find holiday rentals of this quality for two people and we are very grateful that we did. We would certainly return to Casa della Zia if visiting this area of Abruzzo in the future.