Susan Schwartz
The Gazette
Montreal

When Hudson cooking teacher Maria Loggia was planning an Italian villa vacation for a group of her students, she had some quite definite requirements: a well-equipped kitchen large enough to accommodate the 12 of them when she cooked, an inviting and sufficiently spacious dining area and sleeping quarters equally comfortable for all.

And she didn't want surprises like the one she had encountered on a previous villa vacation. Breathtaking as the view had been from up at the villa, the road to the grounds was so tortuously winding that everyone dreaded the drive.

Loggia ran her list by Sheri Levitt, a student of hers and partner, with Naomi Finkelstein, in the Villa People, a Montreal-based company which offers a personalized approach to European villa rentals: You tell them, say if you want to be near a village or that you need a car or cook or Internet access. They do the rest.

Levitt, an interior designer by profession and an inveterate lover of Italy, had checked out several villas the previous summer: She recommended Sesta di Mezzo, a gracious villa in the heart of Chianti.

Loggia's group spent a week there in May - and loved everything about their sojourn, from the cypress-lined road leading up to the rambling old villa and dining al fresco to excursions planned by Loggia, then unwinding by the pool under the Tuscan sun, the verdant countryside around them.

Villa vacations, long popular among Europeans, are catching on among Canadians. Little wonder: They permit travellers to step out of their hotel-room constraints and into the comforts of home - buying their own groceries, not having to go out for every meal and to be able to pad into the kitchen at 10 at night to make a cup of tea if they like.

A villa stay means having a base from which to explore your surroundings at your own rhythm, without having to pack and move every couple of days.

The Villa People represent several companies which act as rental agents for properties in France, Greece, Spain and Portugal as well as Italy. Depending on the season and the size of the villa, rates vary . Call (514) 286-9090 or e-mail: info@thevillapeople.com

As seen in:

• - Conde Nast Traveller
• - Cucina, Etc.
• - The Edmonton Journal; "Live like a lord without the title on a villa vacation"
• - The Hudson Gazette; "La Toscane visité par des Hudsonois"
• - The Ottawa Citizen; "A villa to call your own"
• - La Presse; " Louer une maison en France ou en Italie"
• - The Standard; "European villas offer home away from home"