This week I made the second payment on the villa with Doorways in Bryn Mawr.
If you have never rented a villa, it can be challenging (if your schedule doesn't match theirs) and expensive--like renting a house at the shore for a week. Plus, many places will accommodate 6 or 8 people--some even 12 or 14. My criteria for a rental unit were like the transportation criteria, complicated and unusual. We only needed space for three or four people at most.
In my search, I found that most places will only rent a place from Saturday to Saturday. Because we aren't arriving in Italy until Tuesday, that presented a challenge. Half the week would be over, and we'd have to vacate the place on Saturday. Since Christmas is on Saturday this year, the likelihood someone would check us out was minimal. So, my challenge had been to find a place that would go for a week or more, from Tuesday to Tuesday, over the Christmas holiday. In addition, I really wanted to stay 8 or 9 days instead of just a week.
I posed that question to Doorways, and they said they would contact the owner. I waited a couple of days for the answer to come back. Yes, they would be willing to rent the apartment for that period. Hooray!
One of the other criteria was to find a place that was as centrally located as possible, but not too far from Rome, Perugia, or Florence.
While not the most modern or lively looking of towns, if you do an internet search, Cetona fits most of the criteria I had in choosing a place. The location was good-- near the border between Tuscany and Umbria and within about 3 hours of Florence, Pisa, Rome, and Perugia. It was not far from the main highway between Rome and Florence and was near a main train station (Chiusi). It was off the beaten path (definitely) and a place where we will get a flavor of real Italian life. By the way, Cetona is mentioned by Frances Mayes in her book, Bella Tuscany.
As our departure time draws near, I feel the excitement building. Fortunately I am so busy that my mind stays occupied with other things.
One of the other things Doorways has provided us with is their own booklets on Tuscany, Umbria, and other places. They have their own restaurant guides and booklets of information about the area from their own travels. So far, I would highly recommend them to anyone. The final recommendation will come after the trip, when we see how our overall experience went.
We have 6 weeks and counting! Today's date: Nov 6, 2004.