A Christmas Rental Villa in Tuscany

There are a million rental properties in Tuscany. I instantly became overwhelmed looking for the perfect place for the family to spend Christmas. At some point, with all of the adults sitting around the computer, we found Castello Del Trebbio.

Castello Del Trebbio has two villas and several apartments for rent on their sprawling property. We chose Villa Pergola. This spacious villa is built in a 1600’s farmhouse. The rental also includes a small guest house adjacent to the main building. This was perfect for our group, allowing the families with kids to stay in the main house and my parents in the guest house. It turned out to be a perfect arrangement.

The villa has lots of stairs and levels but all the kids managed them well. There was plenty of parking and even a pool out back. (The pool was not available for use during out stay since it was winter.) We were left a bottle of wine from the estate’s vineyard as a welcome gift. The house also included an “honor bar” wine cellar. You could take wine and add it to your bill as needed. We purchased most of our food and wine at one of the two grocery stores located nearby.

We had a bit of trouble with the hot water. It kept going out overnight. The property caretaker offered us the other house, but moving would have been a nightmare since the kids were quite settled and the other house layout was not as conducive to our group. Instead the caretaker came each morning and throughout the day to reset the hot water heater before. He also waived several of the fees associated with the rental for our trouble.

The land the villa sits on is gorgeous. It was nice to be able to come home and let the kids out to roam for a bit. The dads took the kids on hikes looking for rock trolls and other adventures.

Just down the dirt road was the castle, winery and restaurant. We loved having these attractions on site. A visit to the castle, complete with a wine tasting was complimentary with our villa rental. There was quite a bit of construction going on during our rental to connect the castle and wine store through a tunnel but it was no big deal.

The restaurant was only open the first night of our visit due to the holidays. The food was delicious. They easily accommodated our large group, including the children. The restaurant is located in an amazingly cool space and the menu was incredibly local.

Our favorite part of the villa though was the outdoor pizza oven.

We spent two of our nights making pizza in this oven. It was outstanding and so much fun.

The boys ran the outside operation with some help from the children.

The villa has a huge pizza peel and plenty of wood to get a nice hot fire going.

The kids had the best time making their own pizzas. The fire, although outside, keeps the area nice and warm so the kids didn’t mind working outside. It was easy to buy dough from supermarkets as well as from local pizzerias. Ask for “pizza pasta” as that’s the term for pizza dough in Italy.

The boys hard at work making pizzas for everyone.

The pizza that came out of the oven was amazing. The only thing that would have made it better was being able to make our own crust instead of using the store bought or pizzeria bought dough balls.

Every room in the villa had a lovely view. This is the view of the castle from our bedroom. One evening, after the kids were in bed, Jeff and I were able to hear the wild boars that live on the property squealing as they ran through the olive grove.

We really enjoyed the house and the property. It lacked some of the polish we’ve found at other rental properties. There were no cooking supplies like salt, pepper or olive oil in the house when we arrived. Not even a half empty box of tea. We left some when we departed so hopefully the people who stay after us will have some. That’s no reason to not stay here, but it was surprising to not even have coffee or tea for the first night. Perhaps that’s what you get with self catering in Italy – but we’ve stayed other places and had at least some kitchen comforts.

Despite these little things, I would still recommend this property. It worked out well for our family and was a nice relaxing place to return each night.