Villa Vittoria

Villa Vittoria is an independent country villa about 4 km from the historic centre of Lucca in Tuscany. With five bedrooms, seven bathrooms and space for nine guests across 400 square metres, it's a villa with private pool near Lucca that suits families, including those travelling with a babysitter.

The ground floor opens with a large entrance hall whose French windows face the pool. There's a new, well-equipped kitchen and a dining room, a double bedroom with shower room, a guest bathroom by the kitchen, and a single room with its own bathroom, handy for a nanny.

Upstairs are three double bedrooms, each with a private bathroom: the Pink Room looks onto the terrace and has a whirlpool tub and shower, the Yellow Room also overlooks the terrace, and the Blue Room has a bathtub. The first-floor bedrooms are air-conditioned.

A laundry room with washer and dryer, a dishwasher, oven, microwave, kettle and unlimited Wi-Fi cover the practical side, and extra cleaning or meals can be arranged on request.

Greenery surrounds the house on every side, and an automatic gate opens onto parking inside the grounds. The 7 x 14 m pool has sunbeds and an umbrella, with a lit patio and table beside it for dining outside, plus a barbecue. Garden and pool are looked after daily.

Lucca, known as the city of a hundred churches, is encircled by massive defensive walls and hosts the Lucca Summer Festival; local specialities include tordelli, buccellato and befanini. Viareggio and Pisa are 23 km away, Forte dei Marmi 35 km, Florence 80 km and the Cinque Terre 110 km.