We loved the farmhouse we stayed in near Lucca. Daniella and her family could not have been more welcoming. The apt. we had was the Monte. It had one huge bedroom with 3 single beds (could be one double and l single). The decorations were charming and included fresh greenery and wildflowers in every room. It also had a large kitchen with a couch and table and chairs. The view out the window was a hillside with grapes growing on the lower half, and olive trees on the upper half. It was so relaxing! We toured in Lucca, Florence, and even took an overnight in Venice via train from there. Wish we could have just stayed there and just vacationed to the beach, and more of the local areas. But we ran out of time! That is a stop we would definetly include on our next trip!

All in all, Italy was a great place to travel to. We were just 3 women (middle aged, if I must say), and did not feel threatened and found everyone very helpful. Most everyone spoke enough English to help us. The food and the wines were great. It has just a casual atmosphere that you cannot help but enjoy. Thanks for your help in planning a very memorable trip!

Anita A.

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Dear Daniella,

Thank you for making our trip to Tuscany so wonderful. Lorenzo is beautiful and very comfortable. Your decorating is so lovely. I can tell you are an artist. You made our family feel very welcomed, and the Easter cake was a very nice touch. Our best wishes to your husband, son and daughter. Thank you again.

Sincerely, Virginia M.

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Thanks for making our holiday perfect, you are a great host (beautifull; sexy; intelligent )and well suited to make big success of your business.

Will see you again, that is a promise, if we cant make it back soon we will send friends and family!

Kind Regards
Attie & Aelstje

Our home will be open to you whenever you visit SA!

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Thank you for putting my family up at your great place last May. You were wonderful. We look forward to seeing you in the next year. If you are in the States our place is yours to stay. Hope all is well with you and your family. MERRY XMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.

Alberto and Betty S

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Dear In Italy,

We had a wonderful time at Agriturismo Le Murelle. We had all sixteen people, three generations, five cars, four kids . . . Would have been a disaster if we'd tried to organize things. Had different permutations of people and activities everyday. Enjoyed the local restaurants, especially La Mea!! And Daniela was charming and helpful-- even brought us a berry tart one night though I don't think every guest could count on that. We were disappointed that we couldn't buy the farm's wine -- they sell it all to local restaurants, so we probably drank it anyway -- but we took away all the olive oil Daniela had available and would have taken twice as much. We, the elder generation, are already planning to return, perhaps for the Puccini festival some summer.

Ciao,
Milton and Sue P.

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Hello jessica-

We really enjoyed our stay at Agriturismo Le Murelle. i had no idea that it was so close to lucca, so that worked out great. Daniela was also wonderful. she was the nicest person we met while in italy and was very informative of the area and surrounding areas. i would completely recommend it as a place to stay for the comfort, location, hospitality and price.

Chris S.

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Dear Jessica,

Agriturismo Le Murelle was everything we expected and more. By choosing the unit attached to the original "farm" house, we ended up high on a hill overlooking the entire valley, with access to their back garden. Our host was gracious and helpful and the convenience of being in "commutable" distance to so many Tuscan treasures was immeasurable. Lucca became our "local" and we did day trips to Florence, Pisa, Siena, San Gimignano and the sea. Driving in Italy, on the other hand, was an experience in itself. If you would like to read my own 10 tips for surviving the challenge, based on our actual experience, click here.

Marcus

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Dear Jessica,

Agriturismo Le Murelle was everything we expected and more. By choosing the unit attached to the original "farm" house, we ended up high on a hill overlooking the entire valley, with access to their back garden. Our host was gracious and helpful and the convenience of being in "commutable" distance to so many Tuscan treasures was immeasurable. Lucca became our "local" and we did day trips to Florence, Pisa, Sienna, San Gimignano and the sea.

Gwen and Marcus

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Jessica,

We had a wonderful time in Italy. Agriturismo Le Murelle (Monte unit) was old world but with modern conveniences. It suited us perfectly and we enjoyed the area immensely. Daniela is a lovely young woman who is available if you have questions or problems. We didn't have either. The La Mea restaurant down the road a few miles was excellent..

All the places we visited were beautiful, the scenery so lush and perfect we felt we were in a picture postcard. The people, even though we spoke hardly any Italian and most of them didn't speak English (we spent a lot of time in very small towns), were so friendly and helpful. We enjoyed them immensely. We met an older man in a very small village who helped us find our way to the main road. He spoke English as he spent a couple of years in the Chicago area when he was a young man. After giving us directions he invited us to his villa for a glass of wine (we drank the whole bottle) with him. He then presented us with another bottle of wine to bring back to our apartment. We have been corresponding with him via email since we got home. We met another local man in Volpaia who bought all the customers (about 5 couples) in a little outdoor cafe glasses of sparkling wine. He then proceeded to serenade us with Italian love songs on his accordian. He sometimes sang along and many times the women cooking in the kitchen of the restaurant would join in the song. We met a couple from Canada who were very friendly and we spent a couple of late afternoons drinking wine with them and enjoying the spectacular view. It was, as you can see, a memorable trip and these a just a few of the highlights.

Regards,
Fran

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Dear Ghia:

We really enjoyed our 4-week stay at Agriturismo Le Murelle. We rented the Fellino apartment, a tiny corner of the owners' villa. The family live in Lucca most of the year, occupying the villa only during the summer, so for the first 3 weeks (starting May 12) we essentially had the entire place to ourselves. We made frequent use of the villa's garden, with its potted lemon trees and its marvelous view of the valley and the hills, both nearby and distant .

One of the best features of this place, of course, was our warm, generous landlady, Daniela, whose home was near our apartment. She was always eager to be helpful. Although suffering "morning sickness" each afternoon, she managed the place very competently. Her parents were also charming, and we enjoyed talking with them after they arrived in early June.

The apartment included a large, attractive bedroom, a mostly well-equipped eat-in kitchen/sitting room, a bathroom with shower, and plenty of storage space. We would have appreciated larger bedside lamps, a comfortable easy chair instead of the small wicker couch, and a good reading lamp. Our kitchen took some getting used to. We're tall, and the sink and kitchen range are short. The kitchen sink has no hot water tap, so water must be heated on the adjacent stove or carried from the bathroom. Nevertheless, we found the apartment quite comfortable despite these small inconveniences. We did quite a bit of cooking, and managed just fine. Our bedroom window opened on the same beautiful view seen from the garden, with the towers of Lucca in the distance.

To deal with the lack of a telephone at the apartment, we brought along a cell phone that we had rented in the US. It was registered in the UK, so local calls became long distance calls, but that didn't add a lot to the cost. We could have rented a local cell phone in Italy, but we chose this solution just to make life simpler. It was great to have the convenience of a cell phone.

The villa is high above the valley, requiring a drive up a narrow road with three hairpin turns through the vineyards and olive groves. The added altitude meant that we were always cool at night, and far from any road noise. We became familiar with twisting roads on many of the nearby hills as we explored, hiked, and looked for restaurants. Lucca offers the advantage of being at the edge of the Alpe Apuane mountains, yet convenient to the low hills and flatter lands of Tuscany, and the Ligurian seashore.

We took day trips to Lucca and many other cities and villages: Pisa, Pietrasanta, Cararra, and Lerici on or near the coast, Collodi, Montecarlo, Motecatini Terme, Vinci, Pistoia, San Miniato, San Gimignano and Firenze to the east, Barga, Bagni di Lucca, Bennabio, and the Grotta del Vento in the mountains to the north. We used the train for our day in Firenze, but drove everywhere else. Our only overnight trip was to Lerici, a lovely little coastal resort town that served as our base for two nights when we hiked in Le Cinque Terrre. (From Lerici we took the bus to La Spezia, the train to Riomaggiore, hiked to Manarola and Corniglia, the train to Vernazza, and the ferryboat back to Lerici, giving us a seaside view of the towns we'd hiked to.)

We tried several of the recommended restaurants and pizzerias in the neighborhood of Agriturismo Le Murelle. La Mea, a former olive oil mill, offered tasty food and was fun the first time, but somewhat depressing on a second visit. Our favorite pizzeria was the Alpina, where the owner proudly showed us his excellent photos of mountain peaks and passes, and the friendly waitresses served excellent pizza and pasta in a spotless, pleasant room or on the terrace. We had an excellent dinner at Vipore, hard to find in the nearby hills, but worth it. On the first of June we had a great grilled trout dinner at Purgatorio (just beyond la Mea), eating outdoors next to a little stream. The owner/cook told us it was opening day (they open only for three summer months) and treated us very well. We also especially enjoyed meals at Osteria alla Giudea in Pietrasanta and at Forassiepi in Montecarlo.

In Lucca we tried lots of restaurants, and enjoyed almost all of them, including Da Leo, Giglio, Buralli, Baralla, and Puccini. Lucca is not as tourist-free as we found it a few years ago, but still a lovely, quiet city with a wonderful surrounding wall that's broad enough to invite jogging, strolling cycling, passaggiate, and picnicing on top. The city offers culture (art shows, concerts), Puccini's home, old palazzi, fascinating churches, shopping, and a relaxed small town atmosphere. Nearby Pisa, with a larger downtown and a university, feels more sophisticated and prosperous, but much more heavily touristed.

All in all, we're very happy we chose to stay in the Fellino apartment at Agriturismo Le Murelle. This was our fifth visit to Italy, and the first time we stayed in one place for the entire trip. This visit was enriched by having learned some Italian before we arrived. Our six months of study at Cornell University (5 days per week!) gave us enough command of the language to allow us to ask directions and understand the answers, and to have some interesting conversations. As always, the people we met were extremely friendly and helpful. That, plus the beauty of the countryside and the buildings, the antiquity of the villages and cities, the wealth of fine art, and the excellent food, encourage us to keep going back.

Sincerely,
Lee and Sylvia M.

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Dear Cynthia,

Thanks for your message, and we thought Agriturismo Le Murelle was wonderful and had a fantastic stay. We very much appreciated your note that this is truly an apartment etc. as we knew to stop and go grocery shopping on Saturday afternoon. One thing we found as a nice surprise, especially for the kids, was the proximity to the beach at Via Reggio, its much closer than I had thought. Thanks again for all your help and tips etc. it really was a marvelous trip.

Brian D.

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Natasha,

Thanks for your note. Our stay at Agriturismo Le Murelle was wonderful. As indicated in countless previous letters to InItaly, Daniela is a gracious host. Though I don't perceive that she knows how good she is. You might want to provide her with some of the countless good thoughts that other tourists have written. One thing that pops out regarding Agriturismo Le Murelle is how it is an ideal the location is for a typically hot July in Tuscany. Getting to the Tuscan shore is as simple as taking the road to Camaiore. We went swimming at Pietrasanta which is one town south of Forti di Marmi. One could not imagine a more spectacular place to sun and swim. You have the rich blue Mediterranean Sea at your feet and over your shoulder are the snow capped Apennines. On another day we drove up to the chaotic little city of La Spezia and took the train north to Vernazza and the down one stop to Cornelia. Cinque Terre is another location so near to Lucca.

We did take in Il Palio just south in Siena. That is an amazing take in and should not be missed in either August or July. It is more than a horse race. It is a step back into Medieval lore. Moreover it is in Siena! We took the car to Empoli and from there a train. We did this because we anticipated how impossible parking would be for Il Palio and we were right.

Most who travel to Tuscany will want to Florence and Siena but one should not miss Lucca. We rented bikes one morning and road around the ancient wall and through the streets. Lucca like Siena is a walking city and though the residents can drive and park in many sections of the town there are simply very few cars to speak of. Because Lucca itself is not so much in the "tourist" spot light you do not get the deluge of tourists and the hoopla that follows. Consequently, one gets a feel for how Italians live. This is in particular true in the evenings when many Luccan's are out for their "passeggiata" or evening walk.

Agriturismo Le Murelle itself is adjacent to a small river, the Fredana. This has a salutary effect on the microclimate there. Buying bread and eggs in the morning is a real kick. Again more of living Italian than simply visiting. The wines that Agriturismo Le Murelle produces are typical of so many local wines, excellent, inexpensive and amply available. Keep up your wonderful service. We have gotten my inquiries regarding how we found Agriturismo Le Murelle and I have written "initaly" on a half dozen business cards thus far.

Stay in touch,
Hank T.

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Dear Mary,

Our trip to Italy was more than we had hoped for (and we were hoping for a lot!) Agriturismo Le Murelle was just perfect. I will never forget the sweet scent of the grapevines in the air when we arrived. Our host Daniela was charming and helpful. Our apartment in the house was huge, a big kitchen, a big living room/dining room, a sitting room, three bedrooms and two full baths. It was more than enough room for the six of us. The vegetable and fruit vendor really does drive up to the front door and his cantelopes, tomatoes and apricots were the essence of good food. Our children (ages 7 and 13) had the run of the farm and Julia the dog was a friendly tour guide.

One day we hiked up the mountain behind Agriturismo Le Murelle, through vineyards and olive groves till we could see Lucca in the distance. Of all the beautiful things we saw in Italy, that simple walk will probably stay longest in my mind. From Agriturismo Le Murelle, we took easy day trips to Pisa, the ocean coast and the Garfagnana region. We drove to the village of Lagni Sotto and hiked around an old meadow where sheep herders once built their summer huts. The village far below, the mountains rising above the alpine meadow and flowers everywhere made an unforgettable scene.

I should also mention that the absolute best dinner we had in Italy was at La Mea, about 9 kilometers down the road from Agriturismo Le Murelle. To give you an idea, the antipasto appetizer included: 3 kinds of olives, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, 2 kinds of pickled mushooms, two kinds of pate, 3 kinds of sliced ham and salami. I KNOW that I am forgetting some of the items. The pasta plates were the best we had in Italy, but unfortunately we were too full to have the second plate entrees. Add a charmingly cluttered interior, lots of local families eating there, great service and a good red wine to wash it down and you have a meal to remember for a long time.

To stay at Agriturismo Le Murelle you need to drive, and I just wanted to let you know that we had no problems with reservations that we made through In-Italy. I also didn't find driving anywhere in Tuscany that unnerving. Yes, the roads are narrow and yes, lane markers are justfor show but I found Italian drivers to be courteous and attentive.

Some of the correspondents to your web-site have mentioned how great Lucca was, and we agree. We spent two wonderful days wandering around the city.

I have wanted to see Florence and Rome my whole life. How could I not be disappointed when my imagination met the reality of these cities? Well, my imagination was dim compared to the splendor we saw there, and after the millenium renovations are completed they will be even more fantastic. (If you arrive in Florence by train as we did, DO NOT exchange your money in the train station. It takes forever to complete the transaction and the exchange rate is not great. There are ATM machines and money exchange offices right outside the station).

But our favorite place was Montepulciano. It was a gorgeous hill-town where the few tourists who were there seemed to share a feeling that they had discovered something special. If you go to Montepulciano, stay for a sunset and watch the swallows cartwheel through the sky. There is a brass shop in Montepulciano where the proprietor makes pots and pans by hand like his father and grandfather before him. (His son alas, is an electrical engineer). Buy a pan there and you will have a work of art - he is also a reliable shipper. The village is known for its Noble wines, and they are VERY good. However, anywhere in Tuscany, if you aren't a wine expert, you can't go wrong ordering the red table wine.

So give yourself plenty of time to absorb Tuscany - we were there nearly two weeks and wished we could have stayed longer. When we go back, we will contact In Italy again. You helped make a vacation of a lifetime happen.

Thanks again.
Thomas S.

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Dear In Italy,

Thank you very much for all of your help in planning our trip to Italy. Agriturismo Le Murelle was wonderful. Daniela went on vacation, but her brother Giambi and her mother were wonderful hosts. Giambi took us on a tour of his vineyard operations. Since my sister is a wine importer, we had the opportunity to taste out of the barrel which was great fun. They were in the process painting the houses a beautiful Tuscan red. The apartment itself was very nice with lots of space. Having the kitchen allowed us to buy fresh food and cook a couple of dinners on our own. The area was very pretty even in late winter and I imagine in the summer and fall it is spectacular. After having travelled through Europe going from hotel to hotel, I have now discovered that renting a house in a certain area is definitely the way to go. We were able to concentrate on that area rather that trying to fit too much into a short period of time. I look forward to travelling to another region of Italy very soon and I will be sure to include your company in my future plans. Thank you again for all your help.

Sincerely,
Molly L.

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Dear In Italy,

Agriturismo Le Murelle was absolutely fabulous!!! We couldn't believe how perfect it was for our tastes. We felt so lucky to have this cute little apartment to come home to every day. Daniela couldn't have been sweeter! She was very helpful and friendly. She decorated the apartment so nicely. Everything worked well-heat; hot water etc. Kitchen well equipped. The only feedback would be: tell folks they need to supply things like hand/bath soap; toilet paper; and any condiments for the kitchen. Lucca was our favorite area by far. Off the beaten tourist track; totally interesting countryside. We took day trips like: La Garfagnana; Carrara; San Gimignano; the seashore; hikes above Capella and the best-Cinque Terra. We found fun, local restaurants in the area of the farm, so we didn't have to drive far at night. Lucca was stunning in October/Nov. with the leaves still colorful and on the trees. The weather was absolutely perfect. I give an A plus to Daniela for creating such a wonderful place for visitors. It felt like our home soon after we arrived.

Ciao for now.....
Kristy

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Dear In Italy,

We had a spectacular time in Italy and our apartment at Agriturismo Le Murelle was perfect. It was not a fancy apartment, but the accommodations were comfortable and the family were gracious hosts, molto gentile! I would highly recommend this location as a great starting point with most sites in Tuscany only a day trip away. It was especially rewarding for my three children, who befriended the 84 year old tenant next door, Edoardo, and spent much of their time on the vineyard with him. The only "gem" we found close to Capella was an Albergo/Ristorante which sat high on the mountain about 10 km past Agriturismo Le Murelle. Once off the main road, you had to take about thirty hairpin turns up the mountain to reach them and their panoramic view. I believe we were the first Americans they had seen up there in quite a while because we received many stares while enjoying our three hour Sunday lunch. We have many good memories from Agriturismo Le Murelle and hope to return there again some day.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey G.

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Dear Daniela & family,

Albert & Melinda Rocha

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My friends,

Michelle W.

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Dear friends,

Pierre M.

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Ciao,

Marie-Pierre D.

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Dear Daniela,

FREDERIK R.

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Dear Daniela,

BOILLOT G.

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Dear Daniela,

DOMINIQUE S.

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Dear Daniela,

SANDRINE S.

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Dear Daniela,

ANDREA S.

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