Searching for our property in Italy
We scoured the rolling hillsides of Tuscany, Umbria and Le Marche before buying our Villa in Italy and looked at all the other wonderful places that appeared when you searched for “villas Italy” and what they were offering.
The decision to buy the big farmhouse that was to become our Villa rental in Italy was based on a number of factors:
- It had to have stunning views of the Le Marche region and of the Sibillini Mountains,
- We wanted historic architecture and to be able to convert it into stylish, large holiday apartments
- It had to be located near to a lively medieval village that would cater for the needs of our family, allowing us to belong to a community, but also to guests in our self catering accommodation
- The Italian Villa must also be located in a stunning area of Italy that offered guests that are renting a wealth of flora and fauna, culture, sports, hiking and history
- The vacation rental in Italy must be easily reached via a number of Italian airports,
- We wanted a holiday villa in Italy that was surrounded by farmland, would allow us install a big swimming pool and to grow our own organic produce that we would provide free to guests
Buying San Raffaello Villa in Le Marche Italy
After looking at over 100 villas and houses, we found the big farmhouse in Le Marche that was to become San Raffaello, we embarked on an 18 month project to create the Italy vacation rental property that you see on this website. The house had been derelict for 15 years, had a porous roof, no hot water and no heating, but together with our two young children, we overcame very difficult conditions and endured many long hours rebuilding the house with the help of an architect and professional contractors.
Before restoring the farmhouse we asked ourselves what would the guests renting our apartments for holidays in Italy want from their villa rental in Italy. Many are foodies and in addition to the accommodation want the availability of locally sourced food and apartments that come fully equipped with all you would expect when cooking in your own home. We have tried to make our accommodation and self catering holidays in Italy a home from home experience.
Renting Villa San Raffaello Italy – Sarnano for foodies
The local medieval town, Sarnano, is 1km away from our Italy Villa rentals and full of produce that is considered part of the “slow food movement“. It has at least 7 butchers, 4 specialist enotecas or delicatessans, 4 bakeries, 2 greengrocers, a fantastic wine & chocolate shop and 3 supermarkets, plus the weekly Thursday market which is one of the biggest in this part of Le Marche. You will also find a fishmonger selling fresh fish available from the Adriatic coast.
Eating out & take aways on your villa rental in Italy
If you prefer to relax and reduce your workload whilst renting our villa in Italy, you could always try one of the 2 pasta fresca shops in Sarnano, order a fantastic pizza from one of the 7 pizzerias in town, or, treat yourself at one of the 20 ristorante in town. Many of the ristorante will also cook you a meal to take away if you discuss it in advance.
Free organic vegetables at our Italy villa
We encourage guests using our vacation rentals in Italy to add their vegetable peelings to the compost and help us to improve the soil in which we plant crops that have included plum, cherry & beef tomatoes, courgette, squash, pepper, chilli, melon, green beans, chick-peas, broad beans, potatoes, carrots, parsnip, onions, garlic, chard, aubergine, chickory and lettuce etc.
If you like to cook alfresco, San Raffaello villa rental in Italy, has an outside bread oven or a BBQ pit with incredible views of the mountains and medieval town.
