Francesco and Maria are lovely hosts, they brought us fresh fruit from their trees, olive oil, wine. Maria organised massages and dinners at a suitable time for our children and even had a friend's restaurant serve us especially early to accommodate the children.

The location of the house is great, a quiet area in the countryside but moments drive from town and close to sandy beaches. The house itself has a lovely garden, pretty lemon orchard entrance, nice hot tub, small but nice pool (great to have split level pool so the kids can play on one level without going out of their depth) and the interior is a nice mix of rustic and antique and functional. Nice to have a big TV in the living room with Sky and comfortable sofas and arm chairs. And the day bed outside under the lovely roomy shady awning was fabulous, the highlight of the outside to have a massive comfortable bed for us all to lie together out of the sun and play.

However, so much of the equipment in the house and the house itself was tired, and you felt could use some updating. The pool area needed some work, the bottom of the pool was peeling, mosaic coming off the hot tub, weeds growing through the paving. In the kitchen in particular there was not sufficient crockery or cups (4 mismatched chipped mugs, no plastic cups or jugs for round the pool, very few glasses, not enough serving bowls or storage bowls for a family making meals and having usual day to day requirements, very well used pans with flaking bottoms). The kitchen could do with an update to the equipment to bring it in line with what you would expect in a family house like this one. However there were some nice surprises - a toaster and kettle (not always found in rustic Italy), juicer, hand blender which was perfect for baby food. Also really nice to have a dishwasher and washing machine, with tablets in the cupboard ready for use.

Overall it was a nice stay, but I must admit to being a little disappointed - we expected a little more modern equipment, and I think that some general maintenance needs to be done. The lamps in the kids room were hanging off the wall, my side light didn't work and I had to trade it for another, towels were a bit tatty, and although it was perfectly nice and functional, a little refreshing would make a huge difference.