Farmhouses in Tuscany

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From Been There | Travel Tips | Pisa

A superb pair of farm cottages providing beautiful views of the leaning tower. Easy access to Lucca and Pisa with a good train service to Florence.
The cottages have every modern facility you need, including a swimming pool.
The owners live on site and provide a friendly information facility and comprehensive support.
An absolutely brilliant location.

Updates:

1. What the grown ups thought: ‘An enchanting holiday house in a fantastic scenic spot that helped make a brilliant break. Great to be able to take the train to Pisa, which surpassed our expectations, and just as quick a train journey to Lucca, a beautiful old city whose walls you can cycle round.

The children have loved the proximity of the beach and it’s amazing seeing the snow-capped mountains whilst paddling in the sea. Wonderful wild flowers, birds, lizards and butterflies.’

From the children: ‘It has been really great staying here and we don’t want to leave. Swimming in early April is pretty cold – but fun. We also picked a lot of oranges from the tree. Reg the cat has been a great companion and doesn’t seem to mind when we constantly pick him up and cuddle him!’

2. La Lucertola is a gem in the Tuscan mountainside overlooking Pisa. The farmhouse is beautifully equipped and we had a truly relaxing break there. The farmhouse views were so stunning we did not feel the need to go visit other places! The pizza oven was a big hit with the children. The local restaurants were very reasonably priced and served delicious Tuscan food. Luisa and Colin, the owners of the farmhouse, were on hand for any advice.

From Been There | Travel Tips | Pisa

By Keren

We visited La Lucertola during the 2008 Witsun break, in search of a chill-out break in the tranquillity of the Tuscan countryside, but having three grumpy teenagers in tow, it was also important to be close enough to places of interest to keep them amused. What greeted us was an unexpected delight.

Set in an area of outstanding natural beauty, high up on a mountainside amidst an ancient olive grove and with stunning views of the surrounding countryside as far as Pisa and the coast beyond, the two self-contained farmhouses at La Lucertola are perfect – large, comfortable and extremely well-equipped. The setting is exquisite and as a bonus, there is the lovingly nurtured organic garden – the produce is available to pick and use, free of charge, by the guests! This proved a particular favourite with our children, who loved going out to pick the salad and herbs for our meals and we returned home with all good intentions of recreating our own Tuscan vegetable patch!

Being less than a 30 minute drive from Pisa airport and with highly competitive rates available on Ryanair flights from London Stansted, La Lucertola is ideally located as a base from which to explore the delights of Tuscany (if you actually choose to leave the peace and tranquillity of your Tuscan home that is).

Living in their own separate farmhouse on site, Luisa and Coz are the perfect hosts and I would like to thank them for allowing us to spend a little time sharing their little piece of Tuscan heaven, where even the rain storms hold a certain charm; it’s very easy to understand why they chose to swap their hectic London life for this!

Updates:

1. This is a truly superb villa with a brilliant view across the countryside. The villa is set back away from the main road so you really do feel away from it all – but is actually only about half an hour from the airport. Self-catering was good fun with our group of about 12 – we had great fun with the pizza oven!

I would recommend a day trip to Florence (about an hour’s drive), especially to see the amazing artwork in the dome of Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. Our final evening’s meal was at Villa Bongi – truly fantastic.

2. We’ve just come back from a week at la lucertola and though we had a couple of afternoons of rain the weather failed to dampen our enjoyment. The location is its ups – both the fact it’s high in the hills with a view of Pisa and its Leaning Tower – but also the fact it’s 20 minutes to Pisa and Lucca, which is a beautiful town, 25 minutes to the beach and less than an hour to Florence. You won’t be stuck for days out – if anything you’ll run out of time, like we did. Desperately wanted to spend the day at the spa in St Giuliano Terme but just didn’t quite manage it. Only tip – book a four wheel drive at the airport – the hill corners are challenging if not fun!