Villa LO SCHIOPPO with sea view and pool

We enjoyed our stay at Villa Lo Schioppo. It is a large villa with lovely views over the Mediterranean. There are five bedrooms in the main house and a 1-BR apartment on the lower level. The villa and its kitchen are generally well-equipped. The house managers are accessible and responsive to requests. One main advantage of the property is the pool. It is tremendous – fully 25 meters long and excellent for lap swimming/exercise (but see restrictions on use below). The house managers provide a helpful brochure about how to manage Elba with recommendations about activities and beaches. One big plus is that the house has a relationship with a local chef who can come to the house. We took advantage of this four of the nights we were there and enjoyed wonderful means prepared by him. There are a few issues, though. One is that in the main house only two of the five bedrooms have air-conditioning – the master bedroom on the upper floor and the small bedroom next to it. The air-conditioning units are old and the one in the master bedroom does not work well. Another thing is that the VRBO website advertises the house as having six bedrooms, which would include the apartment on the lower level, but the owners/managers tend to think in terms of how many people are staying there. The VRBO website makes no distinction about how many people are occupying the house. However, when we explained that our view was that we had rented the whole house, including the apartment, even though we only had 9 people, they accommodated us readily and prepared the apartment as well. If you are renting through VRBO make sure you make it clear you want all six bedrooms if that is what you want, regardless of the size of the group. As to the pool, about two weeks before our rental was to start and after we had paid half the rent, we were presented with a list of “house rules” which state that no children under the age of 10 can use the pool. As we had a 7-year child with us, we found this rather off-putting. In the end we understood why – the pool has no shallow end – it’s two meters deep the whole length except for a small ledge on the two ends. The VRBO website makes no mention of this restriction on the use of the pool. Also this house is not for those with mobility issues. There are steep stairs. In sum, we were quite happy with our stay in spite of the issues and would recommend the villa highly to groups of adults and families with children over 10.