We traveled to Italy in early November of 2004 with 9 friends. Spent a couple of days in Rome, then up to Florence by train, rented 3 cars and a villa for a week, back to Rome by train and returned home a day later.

My assignment in our travel group is to find lodging. We have rented properties in Ireland, France and Spain. After months of research on the internet, I found Villa Luciano in Londa. The pictures were appealing, the location perfect, excellent price and US dollars and credit cards accepted.

I contacted the manager, Sandra, and asked for previous clients that I might contact. She gave me several names and email addresses and they all were in complete agreement. Villa Luciano was fabulous!

The Villa is absolutely beautiful. The web site is excellent, but it is hard to visualise the enormity of the property. The house is huge and the manicured grouds are very extensive. The views from each floor of the house are wonderful. There are really "that many rooms" in this house as advertised, and they are elegant but very comfortable.

With seven bedrooms, four couples each had a large room and three singles each had a smaller twin or double room. Although there are not private bathrooms for each room, we had no problems sharing.

We love to cook and had a great time between the two excellent and well equipped kitchens on the first floor. The dining room seats twelve and is quite lovely. There is a large terrace off the dining room where we enjoyed daily wine and cheese from the surrounding area, especially Frescobaldi which is very close.

Londa is a pretty little village with small grocers, a hardware, shops, post office, pharmacy etc. The grocer at the bottom of the hill will deliver to the villa. They have a good selection of wine, meat, cheese and vegetables. There is also a moderate price/casual restaurant with delicious food and excellent service at the end of the lake.

Be prepared for a very brisk walk up if you walk down to the village! The villa is floor floors tall and there are five massive stone staircases. Although there are many steps, the pitch is comfortable and there are rails.

For friends and families, I absolutely recommend Villa Luciano. It is obvious that the owner and staff take great care and have pride and love for this beautiful home in the tranquil hills of Tuscany.