Joe's home in Puglia is as beautiful as it looks in the pictures. A truly lovely villa in a gorgeous setting. I would 10000% recommend it to anyone, but its worth mentioning the 'small detail' questions anyone who has rented a villa on the Med before may have.
Bug situation:
- Hornets are plentiful but mellow and dont buzz food or pester dinner, are alarmingly big but generally chill.
- Very small number of wasps compared to Greece or Spain, one meal we had a few too many but it was the exception.
- No spiders or centipedes to speak of
- Only downside is mosquito city, if you are very diciplined on keeping all doors and windows closed it can be managed, but way more than I'd say is my comfy level. We ended up with 50 odd bites over 6 people in one night. Would maybe bring nets if you're particularly flavourful to bugs.
The Road
- Absolutely fine asssuming some confidence, can be done on the way down on the clutch and on the way up in 1st, but could be a bit alarming for less comfy drivers. Lot of hill starts in Puglia so maybe go automatic if you're a new driver.
Groceries
- No big supermarkets in south italy, but lots of good smaller shops. Vico is actually lovely once you explore it a bit and you can find everything you need maybe 10 mins away, which is great.
Unexpected upsides:
- Sandy beaches! Always thought the Adriatic would be rocky but beaches are soft gorgeous sand.
- The vineyard by the pool is carpeted by soft clover grass, one of the loveliest places to sit I've ever found.
- The best equipped and layed out kitchen I've ever seen in a rental.
- Luigi (the neighbour and caretaker) is an absolute sweetheart, gave some great recommendations and kindly popped round (with his lovely dogs) to help us with a BBQ and talk a bit about the area, can't thank him enough for making us feel at home.
Amazing place, will 100% be back.