Planning Ahead - Tuscany?

Planning sessions for our trips are often impromptu. They can happen at any time when one of us starts dreaming or finds a new travel destination online or when a new cruise brochure arrives. I stumbled across a possibility for something to think about after our world cruise. And, if planned right, could be a great place to celebrate our 47th anniversary.

I subscribe to emails from Smarter Travel and one came in a while ago that piqued my interest when it began talking about affordable vacation rentals in exotic places. Most of them require that you have at least six guests to make the rental fee look attractive at prices as low as $28/person/night. The one that really caught my eye involved a castle in Tuscany.

More than once we have said we'd like to go to Tuscany in Italy and explore a bit more. We only had a little taste of it once on a precruise excursion. The Castello di Montalto pictures in the Smarter Travel article looked intriguing and I looked it up on Tripadvisor. The ratings were all good and as I read of some of the reviewers' experiences, I saw that there were some villas associated with the castle that were for two people. But what would it cost?

I found the website and learned that there are three villas (actually one of them is a part of the castle's towers) that have one bedroom. The pictures are pure Tuscany and the accommodations look very comfortable and include a small kitchenette which means we could save a bit on food. But what would it cost?

If we went it would be in low season, I think, so I looked at those prices which were in Euros. It came to 650 Euros a week which shakes out to about 800 USD. Divide that by six nights and it works out to about 133 USD/night. Not bad!! Hey, Honey. . .