Our party of 6 (ourselves, a daughter, her husband and their two children - 10 and 12) thoroughly enjoyed our 2 weeks in Penny and Richard's delightful villa. The weather has hot and dry during our stay and so we used the pool a lot. The photos are spot-on. The pool is lovely. We were careful to keep doors and windows closed when it was hot outside and so the house remained, if not cool, a lot cooler than outside! A nice touch is that all windows and bedroom external doors had wire nets to keep out any mosquitoes and so we were able to keep windows open overnight.
All emails to Penny were answered promptly and clearly and meeting Filomena, their local manager, went smoothly. Filomena was generally very helpful and we also enjoyed meeting the ever-smiling Ettore, who looked after everything external (pool, garden and rubbish removal) while we were there. The house itself was spotlessly clean and very well-equipped.
The villa is set in the countryside, so we experienced a couple of short power cuts and loss of internet connection in the 2 weeks but nothing to spoil the holiday. While it felt like a very safe place to us, the villa has a lot of security facilities available (safe, burglar alarm, pad-locks, etc.).
Traveling around in a car was easy. Traffic was light and roads good. If you arrive and need to get to a supermarket to stock up like us, the best one is probably Famila in San Vito dei Normanni. (Head back to Carovigno and turn right towards San Vito when you get to the roundabout on the ring road). The supermarket is on your left just as you reach the town.
Overall, we can easily recommend this lovely villa.