Villa in the Vineyard was completed in 2009 having been built to exacting environmental standards.

The original basic stone farmhouse was built in the traditional style with the animals on the ground floor and the living accommodation upstairs.  These houses were not insulated nor designed for comfortable living.  Consequently, the original house was taken down and all the stone was re-used to build the new home.  The house has been built to a traditional Le Marche style to suit the rural setting but with the benefit of high environmental standards using non-toxic materials.

The house walls are extremely thick (over 60 cm) and are insulated with woodchip from forest clippings - this keeps the house cool in summer and warm in winter.   They are painted in cool colours, using breathable paints.

Local craftsmen made the wooden windows, internal shutters and solid oak doors..  The house features traditional wood-beamed ceilings and tiled floors throughout.

The roof is a ventilated style which means that there is always fresh air circulating to keep the house at a comfortable temperature all year round.

Villa in the Vineyard is run on renewable energy and also has invested in energy-efficient systems and appliances.  The house benefits from a heat exchange pump to provide underfloor heating in winter and cooling in the summer months, which avoids the need for unenvironmental and unhealthy air conditioning.   For every 4kw of output, the heat exchanger only uses 1 kw of energy.

Hot water is produced by solar panels on the main house roof (backed up when needed by an energy efficient boiler for the winter months) and then photovoltaic panels on the house and neighbouring outbuildings provide electricity.

The washing machine used for guests' bedding and towels is an LG steam turbo drive, which means that it has A+++ rating for energy use and the steam cleans more efficiently.

Our swimming pool is run on a copper ionisation system so that we can avoid using chlorine.  It is powered by a very energy efficient pump, which runs off our photovoltaic panels.  This means that our guests can swim in crystal-clear water without the smell or irritation of chlorine.

The pool area is fully fenced for safety and enjoys spectacular views over the vineyards and surrounding countryside.

We take the conservation of water seriously.  All our toilets are dual-flush and the taps have aerators.  Any rain water collected off the roof flows into a large underground rainwater harvesting tank.  We also have a well so that we can water the vegetable plot and the plants in the garden with water which comes from the hills above.

We encourage our guests to reduce single-use plastic.  We offer vegetables straight from our organic vegetable garden and fruit from the trees - truly zero miles food!  We buy all the cleaning products we use in large recyclable containers and refill the bottles.  The organic liquid soaps we provide are also in non-plastic, biopolymer containers which we refill.

We supply reusable shopping bags for our guests.  Our tap water is drinkable so we advise guests not to buy bottled water during their stay.  We also encourage our guests to buy fresh food from the local individual shops rather than supermarkets.

Italy started to recycle before the UK and we separate all the different types of rubbish.  We do not have a recycling centre in our area and so we have to take all the different types for roadside collection.  We give clear instructions to our guests and we compost all organic matter for use in our vegetable garden.

We supply separate bins for paper, plastic, bottles and tins as well as a bin for vegetable peelings and anything that can be safely composted.

The products used for cleaning the apartment and the laundry products for the bedding and towels are produced by Greenscents in rural Somerset in the UK and certified organic by The Soil Association.  We also provide Greenscents organic liquid castile soap in the bathrooms and by the pool.

In our Welcome Pack we offer organic olive oil in a glass bottle from our 65 olive trees and a bottle of wine from the vines on our land, which are cultivated using traditional methods without the use of harmful pesticides .  The Welcome Pack also contains a glass jar of our very own organic jam, organic milk, eggs and butter, local bread as well as organic fruit and veg from our garden.