Italy Travel: A Beautiful Villa in Tuscany

We got lucky, the locals said. 

It's not normally this hot at this time of year. they told us.

But it is always this green, and the sky is always this blue and you do always feel like you're somewhere special, they didn't say, but that's what I think they were thinking. It's certainly how I ended up feeling after four days in Tuscany.

We rented a villa near Lucca on Airbnb, we invited two of our favourite couples to join us and we shared one of the best long weekends I've enjoyed in a long time.

It was surrounded by olive groves and was far enough from the rest of the village to fall completely silent at night, but was close enough that we could be at a shop in five minutes by car (or seven minutes when my crazy friend ran there). The owners lived next door but were discreet and friendly and helpful. There were four bedrooms, all of decent sizes, and two bathrooms upstairs (which became the boys' and the girls' bathroom) and a spacious kitchen we could all dance around each other in. The highlight was the swimming pool which was a very short walk away from the front of the house and had stunning views of Tuscany's rolling hills, and my favourite moment was when we had a barbeque on the Sunday night, a meat fest fueled by prosecco and chianti that ended with very competitive games of backgammon and singing to Spice Girls songs on YouTube.

And the cats... yes, they were pretty special too. I love it when Airbnb places come with free animals to play with.

These were our moments of happiness.

Frances M. Thompson

Londoner turned wanderer, Frankie is an author, freelance writer and blogger. Currently based in Amsterdam, Frankie was nomadic for two years before starting a family with her Australian partner. Frankie is the author of three short story collections, and is a freelance writer for travel and creative brands. In 2017, she launched WriteNOW Cards, affirmation cards for writers that help build a productive and positive writing practice. When not writing contemporary fiction, Frankie shops for vintage clothes, dances to 70s disco music and chases her two young sons around Amsterdam.
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