My family and I stayed in this beautiful villa for two weeks, from 8th – 22nd July 2017. The villa has everything we could have hoped for, lots of space for our four teenagers to spread out in and really lovely open plan family seating areas (for lounging and dining) for us all to be together at meal times. The gardens and pool are gorgeous and we spent most of our two weeks here with only the odd day out and about sightseeing.
We ate in for breakfast, lunch and dinner almost every day, with a family of 7 to feed this was by far the easiest and cheapest option. The BBQ was pretty much always on!
There are table tennis and table football tables down in the basement which we made good use of, with the basement also being the coolest area in the house. The facilities in this villa really are great, there is loads of space, the five bedrooms, with three en-suite bathrooms, were perfect for the size of family and meant there was no queueing for showers required.
Seb (the owner) is very friendly and gave us lots of suggestions of places to visit and to eat. Ranco itself is lovely, the small bar on the water (Bar Il Molo de Ranco) is a really nice place to visit any time of the day or night, with live music on at weekends and occasionally on week nights. The staff were very friendly and the drinks very reasonably priced. Just watch out for the mosquito’s on still evenings. There is one small shop (delicatessen) a pharmacy and a couple of restaurants. These are all within walking distance of the villa. There are a few different local supermarkets – within a five minute drive of the villa.
We swam in Lake Maggiore on a few occasions, our favourite spot being a little manmade sandy beach in Ispra (five minute drive from the villa). It was a quiet little haven with a small café and the beach allowed easy access into the lake.
We spent a day in Venice (a three hour drive) and a day in Rome (an hours’ drive) – both definitely worth a visit however take your walking shoes and lots of patience. They're very, very busy.
We absolutely loved Lake Maggiore and what really made our holiday was the villa – absolutely perfect for our needs with amazing views of the lake and the mountains.