I am writing about our experience at Bellavista in Lucca, Italy.

We stayed at the Villa from August 20 through September 3, 2005. The first week there were twenty family members (ages 11 yrs old to 71 years old) the second week there were fifteen guests (family and friends). My wife and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary.

We were all very impressed and pleased with this magnificent place. It was clean, spacious and beautiful. The owners were pleasant and helpful. Your representative Damien was also very helpful; especially with last minute good direction on how to find the Villa. The owner's sister (Paula) will come to the Villa to prepare and serve absolutely delicious meals. This was the best way to dine with so many people. We used her services four times and everyone said we should have used her more. We also had a pizza chef come twice to bake pizzas in the great wood burning oven. One night we had three gals come to give us cooking lessons. Another sister of Emilia (the owner) came from Bologna twice to give excellent massages.

The place was so relaxing that most of our guests did not want to leave for sight seeing. In two weeks we took only four day trips. Also, when we had Paula cook for us, there was always enough food left over for us to heat it up the next day.

The large community room by the pool was one of the best features of the Villa. It was a great place to keep everyone together instead of separating in three houses. The three kitchens worked well for breakfast. The other good feature was that everyone had their own private bathroom. Last, but not least was the pool, which was the greatest pool I have ever seen. There was not chlorine odor. They used salt for purification. The pool was clean and well maintained.

This was my fifth stay at a Villa in Tuscany and it was the best. I recommend it for a group of 12 to 20 people and would be happy to talk to anyone interested.