Villa La Penna - elegant guest house near Barga
We are now in that lull period between Easter and the coming summer season which gives up a bit of time to look at one or two places on barganews where we do not usually have the time to focus on. Anybody recently clicked on the horizontal banners on the top right hand side of the front page ? 
Ok, lets do it for you. Just around the corner from Barga, (about 15km's ) is a small town perched on the top of a hill called Coreglia Antelminelli. It is there that we find the Villa La Penna, one of the most elegant guest houses in that area. 
The award winning photographer O'Connor came back from the last shoot there enthusing about the use of colours in the house and the remarkable gardens surrounding the main villa.
Check out their site which is chock-a-block full of images here
3 Comments:
We stayed at this villa. What they don't tell you here or on the villa's site is that it's very dangerous. At the end of the garden there's a huge ravine and a sheer fall of 1000 feet with only a very low wall to stop you falling.
The wiring in the house was very old fashioned and also dangerous. We weren't happy at all but when we asked for our money back they wouldn't give it to us. We were very angry as this was our only holiday of the year. I won't go there again!
I suppose it is not the wall, which stops you falling, but your common sense. There is not a place I have been to which is 'hill top' in Italy which I can say had modern wiring or even had safety barriers along the narrow winding hilltop roads with sheer drops to the other side. This is part of the adventure and a wonderful thing to experience when you live in a politically correct mad world. A bit of danger is a bit of excitement. I'd stay there anytime.
Political correctness and common sense and adventure don't have anything to do with this, nor does the fact that these are hill top towns. When you stay in a hotel the hotel guarantuees your saftey. It is inspected and conforms to local regulations. That's why they have fire escapes and extingushers and the electrical wiring is to the correct standard.
It is the case in Italy that, while there are building standards, there is no system of inspection of holiday homes and that there are many cowboys who pay no regard to your saftey. It is common to come across many highly irregular features such jerry-built walls and stairs with no or poorly designed railings, pools not lit at night or with no shallow end, do-it-yourself electrical wiring. And when you see holiday home and appartments on websites, in between the beautiful pictures and information about the area, you will find they make no guarantuee as to your saftey. They will fail to tell you that their is a huge fall here or a dodgy balcony there or a falling down barn next to the house. They will not offer you any kind of contract spelling out your rights or what you can do if you are not satisfied. Of course there is the law but pursuing a case through the courts in Italy is virtually impossible and house owners know this, so they don't care. All they want is money and in advance. That's why you should only rent a holiday home through an agency from your own country where you are covered by the law of your own country and have been given a contract. The agency will hopefully have inspected the property and will be responsible and you can avoid such swindles.
So take care when booking your holiday home. You almost certainly won't be told the full story as this poor woman found out.
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