Romantic Places to Spend Valentine's Day in Italy

"Amore" is in the air everywhere in Italy. Its beautiful cities, lovely countryside, gorgeous coastline, and charming Italian villas are just waiting to serve as the perfect backdrop to the most romantic Valentine's Day you may ever spend in your life. Forget France, Italy has as much to offer if not more, for the hopeless romantics of the world looking for Valentine's Day getaways.

In terms of sheer beauty, few places can beat Italy's simply stunning Amalfi coast, with its many charming towns and gorgeous beaches. For a truly romantic and special Valentine's Day, book a room in Il San Pietro Di Positano. Every room in this hotel, which seems to have been carved into the jagged cliffs, boasts breathtaking views from a private terrace. Depending on the room type, prices can range between 420 and 980 Euros per night. You will have to book well in advance if you want to spend Valentine's Day in this hotel, but no worries. There are many lovely Italian villas, just as stunning, available on the Amalfi coast in which to celebrate Valentine's Day.

The radiant beauty of Lake Como managed to charm the charmer himself, actor George Clooney, who settled down near this lovely body of water. For your Valentine's Day stay, you may want to book a room in the lakeside Grand Hotel Tremezzo, which offers stunning views of the Grigne Mountains. Depending on the type of accommodation you desire, rooms run about 250 to 1,500 Euros and should be booked well in advance of a planned stay.

With its beautiful bridges and lovely buildings, Venice is one of the best cities in the world for a Valentine's Day getaway. Although a gondola ride through this city's canals may sound corny, it is still such a wonderful, romantic way to spend time with a lover. In addition, Venice is filled with cute little restaurants and lovely hotels full of character. Unfortunately, Venice does have some drawbacks. Lovers will need to book hotels well in advance of Valentine's Day, since in some years the city's Carnevale celebration may be going on at the same time. If so, rooms will be even more expensive and harder to get than usual. Try looking for Italian villas in the area, as well, which may be cheaper and easier to find than a hotel room.

Tuscany is yet another very romantic place perfect for a Valentine's Day celebration. It boasts beautiful rolling hills, scenic countryside and the area is especially known for having great Italian villas for rent. Lovers can choose to take a cooking class together in this region, which is famous for its delicious cuisine, or spend a day admiring artwork in Florence. More active types may want to climb up the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which costs 15 Euros, or soak in one of the area's hot springs. “Vino” lovers will find a large number of wineries to visit. Whatever the fancy, Tuscany offers couples plenty of ways to celebrate their love together.

Though all did not end well with Romeo and Juliet, romantics are still drawn to Verona and the home that supposedly belonged to the doomed Juliet. It is from this home's balcony that Juliet cried out to the night for her love, Romeo. A ticket to visit this house is 6 Euros. Afterwards, you and your loved one can walk through the city's plazas and streets or hire a horse-drawn carriage near the Roman Arena to take you on a romantic ride. At the end of the day, retire to a lovely Italian villa, which is the perfect way to end a lovely day in this very romantic city.

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Tuscan Villas

I love Italian villas. They are so charming and full of romance. I am sure you know what I am talking about. The clean and fresh Liberty style of the Twenties, the earlier Neoclassic with its sweeping heights protruding to the sky, the Renaissance with its pastel colors and Italian gardens, the Medieval period, with its brick and stone walls all have a great charm.

But there is a kind of villas that I love the most. Perhaps it does not belong to any specific architectural style, or perhaps to the rural one, if such style exists. At any rate, I am talking about Tuscan villas, those rising in the middle of the luxuriant countryside on top of panoramic hills. Surrounded by well kept fields, woodlands, and water bodies, these villas have a very humble past, one deepening its roots in the land they were built on.

I am indeed charmed away by peasant farmhouses, those with stone walls, comfortably sitting on a green estate with their wide presence and low rising roofs. Large families of laborers lived on the first floor, while on the ground floor the stables hosted cows and horses, the tractors of the past. The floor dividing the stables from the living quarters used to be made of a layer of cotto tiles held by wood pillars and lines of studs. The relative thinness of such layer was achieved on purpose to allow the heat of the stables to flow to the upper floor. A thick ceiling would have isolated the heat in the stable.

These villas had not many comforts, and the Sunday morning bathing, religiously carried out prior to going to church, took place in the stables inside a vat, as this was the warmer room of the house. The fireplace on the first floor was the heart of the house. The large dining room and kitchen was built around the fireplace. It is here that most of the daily life took place. The fireplace was used to cook, it heated the dining room, and often accommodated six or more people inside during colder nights. Here the large family, and often neighbors, gathered to chat and carry on petty hand works and crafts impossible to do during the daylight time, which required to be in the fields. Wood and straw works served to the production of chairs, hats, kitchen utensils and to repair work tools. Stories and local news were told while manual work was carried out, and perhaps this is also how couples could meet each other and create new families.

Bedrooms did not have fireplaces, and the freezing cold beds where warmed up using bed warmers filled with ambers. The mattress was filled with dry corn leaves, and you can imagine that beds catching fire was not a rare happening!

Each time I enter into Tuscan villas I can feel the past. Although nowadays many were renovated and include all comforts, the original soul of the place is still present. At times I like to visit the ruins of an old farmhouse. At first I think it is a pity it was not restored as many other were, but then I can see the signs of abandonment and rediscover many original traits of a rural life that completely disappeared in Tuscany and Italy.

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The Charm of Tuscan Villas

I have recently traveled to Tuscany, and what stroke me most about it was the splendid yet simple architecture of some of its rural houses.

My tour brought me in the provinces of Siena, Florence and Lucca. While the latter area hosts many upscale properties, especially near the town of Bagni di Lucca, I liked best the stone wall rural houses. Those sun-baked walls surrounded by quiet, lovingly tended to gardens with blossoming flowers and bees hopping from roses, to dandelions, to fluffy geraniums talked to me of old people sitting outside, working the fields, enjoying the simple things in life. How peaceful it made me feel!

Nowadays the majority of even the most rustic villas and farmhouses in Tuscany have been remodeled to be some of the best properties you can find in Italy. Their interiors are as charming as the outdoors. Villa owners really put a lot of love and a great deal of effort into making these homes the perfect nest to live everyday.

Most villas I have visited featured handmade, originally Tuscan style furniture from the past century. The walls of the kitchen displayed a nice set of utensils that were once of everyday use, but are now some kind of beautiful domestic economy dinosaur to be just admired. Will there ever be a time I own a villa in Tuscany?

My heart skipped a bit when I visited a very old farmer house with one of those sit-in fireplaces. Those are really huge and can fit several people inside. Their purpose was to accommodate the fire, the cooking pot hanging from a chain over live ambers, and two benches, one on each side of the fire, to welcome family members and neighbors. They would just sit there telling stories, or doing some little manual work. It was the most peaceful time of the day, in the warmest place of the house. They would build up some heat before going to their bedrooms where there was no heating. I would so love a villa in Tuscany like that! I would light up my fire every night in winter, and although I might not sit inside all the time, I'd love to get people to come over and have a nice chat by the fire.

Tuscan villas will always hold a special place in my heart. I do really hope I will be able to live in one some day!

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