My wife and I visited the beautiful Palazzo Umberto in Poggiardo in June, and we absolutely loved it! From the minute we arrived, when we received a warm welcome from Maria, and we were shown all the beautiful rooms and the gorgeous “secret” garden we knew we’d made the right choice.
First the Palazzo – so grand and ornate, every room lovely to look around.
There is a rooftop terrace over-looking the square with a lovely bathroom with a huge bath, a bedroom, sitting room and kitchen on the top floor. Then, down an ancient staircase you come to the main floor – a kitchen fitted out with everything you could possibly want, from a coffee maker, a dishwasher, crockery and cutlery - every mod-con you would need; a grand dining room, a grand sitting room with a balcony, again over-looking the square, 2 more lovely huge bathrooms, and 2 bedrooms with air-con…all leading out onto a terrace over-looking the garden equipped with a BBQ and large seating area – we sat and ate there every day soaking up the sun and the atmosphere.
Then down to the ground floor – this is more open plan, with thick stone walls and gorgeous stone ceilings, lending a very cool feeling to this floor, despite the heat outside – it has air-con, of course, but you hardly needed it so effective was the stone-work. We based ourselves on this floor – it too had a fantastic shower-room, a further bathroom, a small kitchen, 2 bedrooms, dining area and sitting area – as the early morning swim was so much closer!!
The “secret” courtyard garden also is lovely, with a fantastic swimming pool, numerous comfortable seats, various citrus trees and flowers everywhere.
During ours stay we used the 2 bikes provided and explored the peaceful countryside. Poggiardo itself is quite a quiet, small town that comes to life on market Wednesdays – we became “locals’ popping to the supermarket daily to stock up on fresh produce for lunch, whilst in the evenings, wandering out to the local restaurants for gorgeous Italian meals.
You can probably tell we loved our holiday here – the house, the town, the sea, the countryside, the food, the friendly people – wish we were there now, and hope to return soon! Maria and Andrea gave us a wonderful holiday in a wonderful house.