You are booking a beautiful country house that has been owned by a well known family from Lecce for decades. The house is embedded in a park-like garden, with a huge pool (approx. 18x4 meters), a water lily pond with goldfish, a pine forest, many fruit trees and roses and a boccia court (boules/petanque). Everything at your exclusive disposal and not shared with anybody else. The villa is very spacious and has a large living and dining area with sofas and a dining table and chairs, a well-equipped kitchen, two spacious bedrooms each with their own bathroom with shower, as well as an additional shower room and a laundry room with washing machine. The kitchen has a gas stove, oven, dishwasher, fridge with freezer, toaster, kettle as well as cooking utensils and everything you need for cooking. The high, vaulted ceilings in the Salento style and the partly antique furniture give the house an aristocratic touch. The house is air-conditioned (in the living room, and there are additional fans in the bedrooms), has mosquito nets and is almost completely surrounded by a covered terrace, which is partly overgrown with climbing jasmine, which provides pleasant shade in the hot summer midday hours. The highlight of the approximately 10,000 square meter (1 hectare) property is the XXL pool, waiting for you to swim laps or for the whole family to play, relax or cool off. Sun loungers are available next to the pool; If necessary, these can simply be moved a few meters into the pine forest. In general, the garden is a botanical highlight with many trees, bushes, perennials and the aforementioned water lily pond. Of course, you are welcome to pick ripe fruit and use it to conjure up a fruit salad for the barbecue evening, for example :-) A charcoal grill is available for you. The park is fully fenced, and pets are welcome. The property is only about 3 km from the city center of Galatina, the "Assisi of the South", known for its Gothic Basilica of Santa Caterina with its frescoes, and as the home of the now famous pastry "Pasticciotto" that you can try here in all variations, ideally for a sweet breakfast accompanied by a cappuccino. About 1 km from the house is the town of Sogliano Cavour with a few supermarkets, a bakery, pizzerias and restaurants. Galatina is very centrally located in the province of Lecce, so all of the region's special places and sights are easily accessible. The nearest beaches are on the Ionian Sea north of Gallipoli (20-25 km from the house), where we particularly recommend the coastal town of Santa Maria al Bagno and the golden sandy beaches of Padula Bianca and Rivabella. The Adriatic coast, on the other hand, offers beautiful sandy beaches (Alimini) north of Otranto, while south of it is one of the most spectacular stretches of coast in Puglia, with steep cliffs, bays, sea caves and the lighthouse of Punta Palascia, the easternmost point in Italy. We organize boat tours every Wednesday from May to September in Torre Vado, located south of the house in the direction of Santa Maria di Leuca. 🛏️ Sheets, duvets and towels are not included. If you don't want to bring them with you from home, regardless of the length of your stay, you can rent them for €20 per person. Beach/pool towels are not provided. 🧽 Final cleaning is not included and costs €120, unless you clean yourselves before departure. 🐶 Dogs and pets are allowed (max 2 dogs or pets, surcharge €100 per dog/pet). You will need to inform us in advance. 💰 We will ask you to pay a security deposit of €600 before arrival. The security deposit will be refunded within 7 days after departure, if there is no damage. ⚡ Electricity costs (and thus where applicable AC, hot water, heating etc.) are NOT included in the price and will be charged based on your actual consumption. The price per kWh charged to guests was €0,42 on 02/05/2024, when this text was last updated, but as prices are fluctuating a lot, your actual price per kWh will be communicated a few days before your arrival based on the current market price. We decided not to include electricity costs in the rent in order to: a) keep our rental prices stable despite inflation and b) incentivate our guests to use electricity responsibly, helping us to reach our sustainability goals. Thank you for your understanding. ℹ️ ABOUT US We're a team of holiday enthusiasts with diverse backgrounds based between Italy, Greece and Switzerland. 🇮🇹 🇬🇷 🇨🇭 Our mission is to find the most unique holiday homes, refurbish them and make them available to people like you, who want to live the authentic Italian or Greek experience at a high (Swiss!) quality, without spending a fortune 😊 Please note we're NOT an agency: we fully manage our properties by ourselves. ℹ️ By booking this accommodation, you accept that: - We are obliged by law to verify the identity of all our guests. We will therefore ask you to upload copies of your IDs on our (secure) website to verify your identity before handing out the key code for the accommodation. Your personal data is treated in full compliance with EU data protection laws. - Also, we are obliged to sign a rental agreement with our guests (one person per group). This will be done digitally and requires just a few seconds on your side. You can find a template of the rental agreement on our website. - Parties, gatherings, events or loud music are not allowed at this property unless explicitly authorised beforehand by us in writing. - In case the local municipality charges a tourist tax, we will ask you to pay this separately to us and we will transfer it to the local authorities as required by law.