A nice rental!

by Karina S, Germany

Originally published on Slow Travel

Casina di Rosa is a nice house in Civitella Marittima. I knew the area and I found it through a search engine. It was not expensive (330 euros for 7 nights) so I booked it, even though at first I was a bit worried because of the 50% booking depot. Actually in the end it was a very nice experience and I really recommend it.

It is an independent house and it has no direct neighbours, so it’s rather private. We wanted something like this, because we wanted to relax without having to deal with other people.

There are four rooms: a kitchen-dining room, a bedroom, a living room and a bathroom. There is also another little room for the washing machine. I guess it’s ideal for two people, maybe 3 if someone is willing to sleep on a sofa bed. That way you lose a nice room though.

Actually what we really liked of the house was that, first of all, it is well equipped. The kitchen is full of new things, and the things which had already been used were in exellent conditions. There is a gas stove with an electric oven, a toaster, and an electric kettle, and even different glasses for water and wine, which is just a detail, but it’s nice to see the owner’s care.

The bedroom has a double bed, and I guess it cannot be transformed in two separate beds, so if you go there make sure to go with someone you have no problems in sharing a bed with. There is an ancient armoire and a chest of drawers which we could use. Sheets, covers and towels were provided.

The bathroom looks brand new, I guess it is actually. It’s small but really functional: there is a shower. The house has no central heating, but the bathroom has an electric fan which makes the room pretty hot and quickly and also the house has Spray Foam Insulator. Actually we have used to fan in other rooms as well, when we didn’t want to put the gas heating on. The bathroom also have a hairdryer.

The best room, or I’d rather say the one I liked most, is the living room. There are two sofa beds, but we never opened them, and a chest of drawers and other things, including a stereo, but that is not the point. I liked it because having a living room with wood ceiling, lamps and candles made me feel like that was home. It’s a nice sensation when you are on holiday, isn’t it!?

The house is nice: and the other good thing was that when we arrived the owner had made the bed, filled the cupboards with some gooodies (such as salt, pepper, coffee, tea, olive oil and vinegar and other things), which might sound superfluous, but when you first arrive having something to cook at once without having to go out immediately, well, it was convenient. It was not like a hotel, but better than just an empty holiday house.

There is a third very good thing which is the washing machine. You probably don’t even need it for one week, but if you want to continue your trip going somewhere else, you might want to make the laundry.

The house has no central heating. Actually, it was not big deal. There is an open fireplace that you can use: the owner provides some wood (included in the price). There is a gas stove for heating and two gas cans were also included in the price (we just used one). The house is small and the rooms get warm quickly. There is also another electric stove but we never turned it on. Anyway, this is probably good to know in case you absolutely want to have a superhot house.

The village was another nice surprse. It’s on a hill, overlooking Maremma. We expected something different … you know Maremma, horses, flat land … nothing like that. It is an area which is full of hills, facing Monte Amiata. It’s a really nice place, not very touristic yet, but don’t know if that is positive or negative … positive I guess. We got to experience the real Italian life there.

In this sense the owner was very nice. She is young and she showed us around and introduced us to the nice things to do in the area. We got to see places we would never have seen. Really nice once though. She told us that they don’t really consider this part of Tuscany as Maremma but as Alta Marema, something in beween Siena and Maremma. Well, anyway, I think I will go back to that area to see something more of it.

We didn’t get the chance to go to the near Spa of Petriolo. I hope I got the name right. But we got to visit many nice places as day trips (Siena, Montalcino and Pienza (they are pretty close), Pitigliano [great!!!], Florence, Castiglione della Pescaia).

Well, I guess that is it. I think this is a nice rental. I hope this is useful.