Villa Maria

Villa Maria is a beautiful old style villa with oodles of character and lovely views over Lake Garda. It's in a good location, being quite close to some shops, bars and restaurants. The villa has plenty of room inside and out and has a clean, well maintained salt-water pool which we thoroughly enjoyed. When we arrived, we were greeted by someone from the ownership team who showed us around the house - I felt this was a nice touch. Everything was very clean and the house was serviced and linen changed at the end of our first week (of two). There is air-con, but only in three bedrooms - the one on the top floor and two on the middle floor. We found we could cool the other bedroom on the middle floor by closing the doors to the stairwell - this worked very well. I would suggest the owners try to install air-con to the other two bedrooms. There are four bathrooms - a small sit-up bath on the top floor, a good sized bathroom and separate good sized shower room on the first floor, and a shower room (with washing machine) on the ground floor - the bottom one was the best for showering. Note that the villa is on a steep hill, so whilst shops/restaurants are within walking distance, it may be easier to drive. Nearby Gardone Riviera can be reached by going up the hill through Morgnaga which was very useful.

Note the limited rooms with air-con, but this was not a major problem for us and we were able to work around this. The kitchen is on the small side but is ok - I think it would challenging to prepare proper meals. The sitting room is also a little small and would feel cramped if the house was full. There is (not very fast) wifi, but due to the solid walls, is pretty much only available in the sitting room. I would recommend the owners explore delivering wifi to the rest of the house. The doors of the shower on the first floor were very fiddly. I think some of the outdoor furniture (some sunbeds and parasols) could do with replacement. Be careful about grounding out your car on the entrance gates.