So you want to rent an apartment or vacation villa in Italy?

Renting accommodation in Italy for any length of time is different than booking into an hotel. For a start there's a whole new set of rules and cultural differences to get used to.

Travel Tips on Renting a Vacation House in Italy

Find a website which offers a good selection of rental accommodation.

I used the Summer in Italy website (www.summerinitaly.com) which covers the Amalfi Coast and now can recommend a selection of villas and apartments in Tuscany, Umbria, Rome, Venice and Lake Como.

Make sure the property checks all your boxes e.g. location, price, size. Read the reviews about it, if there are any.

Once you've decided on a property the online booking process is relatively simple. The difference with renting an apartment is that you will probably have to pay a deposit, usually a small percentage of the total price. Then the rest is paid for just before you leave home. This process may vary depending on which organisation you book through.

You may also have to pay a security deposit to the owner when you arrive (I paid EUR 150 which was returned at the end of my stay).

Holiday Accommodation in Italy: Tidiness and Treatment

Many rental apartments or villas in Italy are peoples private homes so it is expected that you maintain a certain level of tidiness and look after the premises as if they were your own. For instance the place I stayed in asked if I could water the plants regularly.

Cleaning is normally a professional job that takes place after you leave, though it is expected that you pay for this. I paid EUR 50.00 where I stayed.

Italy Apartments: What to Expect

• Sets of knives are not common in Italian homes, there is usually just one knife to cut bread, vegetables etc.
  
• Even though Italy is mostly surrounded by water, sometimes it may take a while for it to come out of the tap. This is especially if you are in the South, it's summer, you're on the top floor and you're running another tap somewhere else.
  
• When it comes to personal hygiene you may have to make allowances for small water tanks that run out after ten minutes. And for some reason face cloths don't exist in Italy.
  
• When it comes to washing clothes it is a good idea to ask which is the clothes dryer and which is the dishwasher as they can look similar.

My House in Italy is Your House in Italy

In my case the owner lived just beneath the apartment I was staying but apart from waving to me occasionally she left me to my own devices. I was surprised to hear how fluent in English she was, which was a relief. It may not be the case with all owners though, so some slow speaking, using of hands or calling the agency to translate may be required.

“It's not right, it's not wrong – it's different” - (Summer in Italy)

Living like an Italian, at least for a while, is the way to stop feeling like a tourist and start seeing things from a different angle. After all why travel to Italy if you're just going to stay in a typical hotel that you could have stayed in at home?

Visit Summer in Italy for a great choice of holiday rentals.

(Top two photos and main page photo courtesy of the internet, bottom photo is Casa Clementina where I stayed)

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