A Potentially Lovely Place to Visit Let Down in Several Ways

Villa Sapore di Sale is a spacious house in a fine position in an interesting and beautiful part of Italy. It is a shame that the pleasure of visiting it was unfulfilled in several ways. Initially, there were a couple of problems with its location on the Third Home website. Until recently, its position was wrongly given on the map as being in the middle of Alliste, the nearest town. This problem is compounded by the fact that entering the property’s address in Google Maps also wrongly takes you to the middle of Alliste – where there is a red marker incorrectly labelled ‘Villa Sapore di Sale’. In fact, the villa is on the Strada Provincale 88 coast road here: https://goo.gl/maps/gJutYbNwCmS2. The position shown on Third Home’s map is today (9 April 2019) still incorrect, but it’s a lot closer than it was. An unrelated issue is the description of Brindisi airport being 40 mins away by car. In fact, since it’s about 110 km away, it takes at least 1 hr 20 mins depending on traffic. A second series of problems was caused by the unresponsiveness of the owner. She took almost three weeks to reply to our request to confirm the availability of the villa for the week that we had reserved on Third Home. A reply only came after Third Home’s repeated intervention (thank you, Isabella) – by which time the price of our flights had increased. Then there was no communication from the owner as the date for our visit approached: my emails requesting confirmation of the location (because of the map error) and details of how to get access on arrival went unanswered until, again, Third Home intervened on our behalf. Eventually, eight days before we were due to travel, we were given the name and phone number of Amin, the property manager, who rang and reassured us. Until I spoke to him, I was wondering whether we should cancel and cut our losses. Not a great way to look forward to a holiday. Thirdly, there is the question of the amenities in the villa. We arrived at 9:00pm on a Saturday night to find that there were no toiletries in the bathrooms at all. No soap, shower gel or shampoo. We weren’t expecting that, but it wouldn’t have been a problem if we had been warned to bring everything. There weren’t enough towels either, but Amin found us some. Sadly, the quality of the towels and the bedclothes was rather poor, and the bedding needed a deep refreshing clean. During the week we were left without water for one night when there was a problem with a pump, but Amin had that fixed first thing the next morning. The hand shower holder was broken. The internet went down after four days, but to be fair we had been warned that internet access was unreliable and in any event we found that we had adequate 4G signal on the TIM network, so this issue didn’t particularly inconvenience us. Having said all that, the location is great. The coastline is lovely, accessible and varied, and the April weather was good enough to allow us to enjoy it on foot. It was clearly well out of season: most of the restaurants were closed, but there were so many of them that the few that were open still gave us a reasonable choice nearby (shout out to Trattoria Octopus for orecchiette and fresh seafood and Le Carite for irresistable pizza). Otranto and Lecce are each within an hour’s drive, and Gallipoli and Santa Maria di Leuca are either side of 30 minutes away. All are well worth visiting. In the end, we were glad we went. But it wasn’t the pleasure it could have been. This is our first experience of using Third Home, and I’m sorry to say it wasn’t a great introduction.”

Spacious villa with lovely garden and great sea view

This 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house was plenty big enough for my two (adult) daughters and I. The large pool will be great in summer - a bit chilly in March! I loved waking up to a beautiful sea view every morning and the large garden and social space was great. I would recommend going in summer - the area all felt very off-season in March, lots of places closed etc. I also think the host could have been more helpful. We arrived at a house with no gas (for cooking or heating), cold from being closed up over winter, and no internet. The property manager did his best, and did manage to get the gas working after a while but the boiler was failing at least once a day and the internet didn't arrive until day 5 of a one week stay, seriously compromising my work commitments. With a bit more service attitude, a great property could also be a delightful experience. ”

A wonderful surprise

This house on the Italian coast is a gem. Lovely, beautiful pool. Linens need an upgrade for 3rd home. Well equipped kitchen. A quiet seaside town completely closed down our first week and sprang to life the second. A perfect location for sight seeing in a little traveled part of Italy.”

Lovely home in a Remote Area

A lovely sea view home in a remote area in the province of Lecce. The location is actually 40 minutes from the city of Lecce and a car is necessary to get to the closest town, stores or restaurants. We experienced hardship in contacting the manager and found them unresponsive. We never received any directions, instructions or check in/check out information, We had no internet, TV reception or radio for 3 days. We were able to get help from the gardener/caretaker, Iman who was very accommodating and helpful. We agree with the prior guests' comments that linens and beds need upgrading. The grounds are well kept, kitchen is large and modern but could use a supply of cooking utensils. Town of Gallipoli and nearest beach, Lido Beach are 30 minutes away. It is a change from the big city as there is no traffic in these small towns and locals are very nice and friendly. ”

Italian Seaside

This is a gorgeous house with a lovely pool and exterior plantings. My only suggestion would be to upgrade mattresses and linens for 3rd home guests. The house is in a quiet seaside village. It was closed down the first week and sprang to life the last week of April. The area was perfect for exploring Puglia, especially if you love old architecture Many different kinds of coastline. Last of April, we had perfect weather.. Very little English spoken so we really did have to learn some Italian. The local people were very kind and helpful and patient. The view of the sea is spectacular everywhere.. A special place.”

Beautiful Sip of Salt

Wonderful offer to us in 3rd home. Very modern upscale home right on the water in the heel of Southern Italy. The food, wine, and local area is hard to beat. This is a place to visit!”