Storie e Affreschi - Le Case di Valentina

La terrasse

La propreté

The location was good. It was a 25 minute walk from bus dropping us off from Lecce. The apartment is light and spacious but no view, just walls of opposite buildings, so private. We didn’t need air con. There were no mosquitoes so we were able to sleep with doors open. It’s a five minute walk from the fantastic beach. The sheets and towels were of good quality. Beach towels are not provided. The rooftop terrace is good but it is three flights up very narrow and steep sloping steps. We didn’t eat on the terrace due to this aspect but it was good for a glass of wine or if you wanted to sunbathe. The fish market has been closed by the authorities so if you were planning on BBQs on the terrace to cook fish you might want to reconsider. Gallipoli was lovely and the views from the numerous bars around the island are fantastic, especially at sunset.

Firstly, we were asked to sign a several page document before being allowed to take the keys. This basically was a cost sheet of absolutely everything in the apartment. A cost per item. This wasn’t detailed in our original booking (we checked). This was our 40th accommodation this year. We have never been asked to do this before. This was also one of the higher end cost per night accommodations. The apartment sleeps up to 6. Two mismatching wine glasses (all glasses had to be washed as they were dirty), the door handle fell off the bathroom as we entered, the toilet roll holder was falling off, the hairdryer plug didn’t fit in any sockets, we couldn’t have stained the mattress protector (one of the items with a cost) as there wasn’t one on the bed, the bed didn’t have a cover or quilt, just a sheet - the list goes on. I am asthmatic, I carry an inhaler. I have a severe reaction to mould, especially black mould and it comes on very quickly. We texted to say there was black mould in the shower and the response was that their apartments don’t have damp or mould. So I sent a photo of the mould - reaction was they would send someone to reclean. Going on how dirty the overall floors and surfaces were this would have taken a full day. So we found a product and cleaned it ourselves. Photos below. You had to clean your feet before getting into bed the floors were so dirty. We left one morning and the cleaners were just arriving to the adjoining apartment. After twenty minutes we realised we had forgotten something and went back. They were just leaving! They don’t actually clean the floors, they simply spray strong smelling cleaning product over them. We could see this as it shone in the light so we got a clean piece of kitchen roll and wiped it over one tile. Photo below. We were tempted to leave on arrival but we were tired and the effort involved in finding something else in a small location was too hard. We were really disappointed.

We felt completely at home in this special and charming apartment. Everything was just perfect, the clean, beautiful and very spacious apartment is in the middle of the old town, a few hundred meters from the beach and yet very quiet. We enjoyed every single day, especially the view from the private roof terrace early in the morning and in the evening. Valentina and her team always took excellent care of us and we hope to return to this gem in the future! Grazie mille!

The size of the apartment esp the shower size. Hard to find a large shower in Italy. The manager accommodated an early arrival.

When we arrived the apartment was infested with fruit flies. Many regular flies were also buzzing around. I would say if you are a nooks and crannies clean kind of person this is not the place for you. The rooftop patio wasn’t clean and there were no cushions available. The photos of the rooftop patio are misleading.