Serenity

We joked about the name (remember George Castanza and the "serenity NOW" episode from the Seinfeld show) but it truly is serene. The large picture window looks out over a bucolic scene of rolling hills and fields. The private patio tucked into the side of the cottage has a similar view. The small cluster of houses is inhabited by friendly dogs, a couple of curious but polite children and a few neighbors that smile and wave but keep mostly to themselves. Besides the sound of a tractor or a distant chain saw the most notable sounds are the birds. Clouds drift by, the sun sets and the lightning bugs come out. There are zero services near the cottage so filing up with gas and stopping by a grocery store before we arrived saved us an evening run in to town and let us really soak up the serenity. The cottage is all but surprisingly well equiped for a self catered stay. All together it was a really wonderful stay and a chance to recharge after some fun but sometimes hectic time in Rome and Cinque Terre.

Not much in the way of dining options near the cottage.

Loved the beautiful setting and cute accommodation!

Nothing!

Quiet location, stylish arrangement of interior with nice details. Nice view from the hill onto Umbrian hills. Owner was very responsive though chat messages.

Location isolated and bit far away from any content/POI as the house is located on the top of Umbrian hill. From the outside it looks like old dilapidated barn (happily inside impression is better). It's impossible to park in front of the house, but car can be parked about cca 200 meters away. Bed is narrow, there is a space for much wider bed. Only window in the room with nice view cannot be opened. A bit too slow Internet which was barely enough to watch Netflix. I managed but with occasional stutters. Unfortunately, quite a lot of water was accumulating in the small sink in bathroom. Narrow entrance to the shower. Owner asked for paying city taxes through PayPal, not keeping attention that in the ad and in confirmation mail was info that all fees and taxes are included in advertised rate. It is normal for Italian accommodations to charge taxes separately from the stay rate, however that must be stated in description and in the confirmation email (I work for b.com so I know that with 100% certainty). I received compensation from b.com for that oversight.

Air conditioning. These days it is becoming more and more essential. WiFi. Albeit not rock solid, it permitted us to do the usual searches and photo uploading Decor was pleasant, and with a likeable style.

The bed was a French one (small, 140 cm) as opposed to a large one, publicized on Booking. We hate those beds. We found the winter blanket on the bed (facing the hottest week of the year) and we had to remove it from its duvet (with no place to put it). After having removed it, we found that the blanket had plenty of stains, and did not look like being washed from the winter (if not longer). Same story run for the mattress cover sheets (they were two): stains and no perfume, typical of recently washed things. As one appeared less stained than the other, we decided to swap them. The flat, pretty spacious, did not have places to put things: the bathroom did not have any single place for stuff, and socket for an electric toothbrush. It resulted in being nice looking, but extremely un practical. The kitchen was curiously furnished: no mugs, three (flat is intended for two) glasses serving as mugs, an Italian coffee machine with a destroyed gasket, two only coffee capsules for two persons four days, a soiled fry pan (sticky of oil), three f pairs of dishes (for 2 persons). As we usually like fruit juice with our milk and coffee, we ran into problems. TV appeared to be coming from UK (UK socket), so it was probably not compatible with PAL, the European transmission standard; owing to that no channels available, unless one does not use his own subscription to services like Amazon or Netflix. As we did not have those, we could not use the TV. We found some DVDs, but not a player.