At Villa in the Vineyard our guests have the luxury of the whole ground floor of our large eco villa as well as the exclusive use of the outside space with its large terrace, covered loggia, swimming pool and 2 acre landscaped gardens. 

The apartment is a real home from home with a fully equipped kitchen, comfortable beds and quality furniture.  For those guests wanting to get away from it all in a safe, rural environment, this is the ideal choice. 

During lockdown we have all appreciated nature and being able to go outdoors for exercise became such a precious right.  Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the drive towards sustainabilty is as strong as ever, particularly as human activity is likely to have contributed to the rise in these type of pandemics. 

From the outset, we have taken every measure possible to make Villa in the Vineyard the most sustainable and healthy holiday home with private pool in Le Marche.  The villa has been built to the highest environmental standards using the original materials; it is run on renewables with a chlorine-free ionized swimming pool and is surrounded by sustainably managed vineyards.  We have also done everything we can to maintain a healthy and safe environment inside the apartment by using organic products for cleaning and providing organic personal care products for guests.  These two elements combined are why we have a Green Tourism Gold award.

We are aware that some of the procedures we are having to follow are not as environmental as we would like but the safety of our guests is, of course, of paramount priority. Where it is safe to do so, we will continue our eco practices as you can read below.

Good hygiene is one of our best defences against coronavirus but this does not have to mean using harmful chemicals like bleach or metres of single use plastic.

Obviously, using bleach kills the virus as it is such a powerful chemical – you only need to smell it to realise that.  So, as an ethical business, what were we meant to do?  Use products that are on our ‘black list’ as harmful to the environment and long term human health?

As one of my marketing clients is a certified organic cleaning company, this is a subject very close to my heart!  The founder of Greenscents, Christina Hawkes, has written a very detailed report about how to adopt strict hygiene methods but still have respect for the environment and human health – you can read it here.  Based on the fact that I have campaigned for years against cleaning products like bleach (sodium hypochlorite), I could not bring myself to start using it liberally around our villa.  I have done a lot of research into natural alternatives often cited, such as tea tree oil, vinegar and lemon juice.  These work really well for a number of household jobs and are effective against some pathogens but they are not proven to work against the current coronavirus.

We know from the World Health Organisation that washing hands with soap and water is actually more effective than using hand sanitizer.  The coronavirus has an outer coating that is dissolved by soap and this breaks up the virus.  As featured in a recent Which report into hygiene and COVID-19, Dr Primrose Freestone, Associate Professor in Clinical Microbiology at the University of Leicester explains: ‘COVID-19 is an enveloped RNA (ribonucleic acid) virus, meaning that proteins and lipids are part of its structure. Therefore, detergents by themselves – such as soap and even washing-up liquid – work very well at disrupting the virus structure by dissolving the lipids, which in turn inactivates the virus by stopping it binding to our cells’.

For this reason, we have decided not to reach for the bleach and to clean our apartment using Greenscents Organic Castile Soap together with water and reusable cloths made from old sheets, followed by an organic spray cleaner containing 75% alcohol by Nivel, which is less damaging than bleach and still adheres to the government guidelines.  Obviously, we will be taking more time than usual to ensure that every surface is cleaned thoroughly and we will have to take more care ourselves by wearing masks and gloves at all times.

We will continue to clean all the laundry using certified organic products by my client, Greenscents, washing at higher temperatures and line drying to benefit from UV light.  We buy these laundry products in large sizes for refilling the smaller containers.

As a holiday home with private pool, we actually offer our guests a healthier alternative to chlorine to keep the pool pristine.  The pool is kept clean using an environmental copper ionization system.  This provides unique advantages over traditional "chemical only" water treatment providing a stable, measurable disinfecting residual that is unaffected by water quality, heat or evaporation.  No stinging eyes or nasty chlorine smell - it't like swimming in bottled water.

At Villa in the Vineyard we offer a new kind of luxury.  It's not about bling or being showy.  It's about experiencing the natural world at its most unspoilt and enjoying the purest and most authentic pleasures.   This approach offers our guests a unique, memorable experience where they can enjoy the simple pleasures in life which we have all come to appreciate during the past few months.  A walk through the vineyards on our land, an oasis of biodiversity with wild flowers and grasses.  Swimming in our chlorine-free pool with 360 degree views over the rolling hills dotted with hilltop villages and a patchwork of fields in shades of gold and green.  Tasting the wines from the vines on our land at Casale Vitali up the road.  Enjoying the authentic, top quality food of this region - from a simple take-away pizza to eat at the Villa to a fine dining experience a local restaurant.

The coronavirus pandemic has seen a rise in single use plastic, which is not good news for the planet.  We provide complementary organic liquid hands soaps and shower gels, containing natural ingredients with gorgeous fragrances from organic essential oils.  These are made by an organic Italian brand called Biolu and we buy large 10 litre containers and refill the reusable bottles, having enough so that no one will have the container from the party of guests before them to allay any fears about hygiene from reuse.

Now is the time that people are searching for a holiday home with private pool but they are also aware that we must protect the environment and take this opportunity to create a new normal which has sustainability embedded into a better world order.

Villa in the Vineyard ticks the boxes at all these levels.