Lovely Sirente

Whitewashed barrel vaults, terracotta floors, wrought-iron bedsteads. It is a family house, and it shows: things have been in their place for years.

On winter evenings you light the fireplace, and sooner or later everyone ends up in front of it.

The masonry kitchen is big enough for several people to cook at once, which is one of the reasons to take a house rather than five hotel rooms. There is independent heating, a washing machine, wi-fi, and a table for whoever has to work on holiday.

Five bedrooms, nine beds counting two sofa beds. We work out who sleeps where when you book: with a big group it is always the first question, and it depends on who you are.

The garden has a timber pergola with a long table, and the barbecue beside it. In summer that is where the day ends: you eat outside and stay out late in the cool mountain air.

From the terrace you can see Monte Sirente, with snow along the ridge in winter. The house is named after it.

Rocca Calascio, forty-seven kilometres away, is the most photographed castle in Abruzzo, on a ridge above fourteen hundred metres. Santo Stefano di Sessanio, a medieval stone village, is fifty.

Sulmona is twenty kilometres away and it is the nearest town: sugared almonds, an old centre, the market in Piazza Garibaldi under the arches of the medieval aqueduct. It is also where you shop for a crowd.

The sea at Pescara is seventy-nine kilometres away. In a week there is time for a day at the beach.

The Sirente-Velino regional park begins more or less at the front door. The paths climb into beech woods, which in October and November are worth the trip on their own: you can walk for hours through yellow woods without meeting anyone.

Le Pagliare di Tione, twenty kilometres away, is a stone village high up on the mountain. The houses were used for summer grazing. Today you reach them on foot, and they are still there, intact and empty.

The nearest ski lifts are Ovindoli and Campo Felice, both an easy day out. You leave in the morning with the skis and are back by the fireplace in the afternoon.

On the days you do not ski, you can watch the snow on the Sirente from the terrace with a coffee in your hand.

There is no surcharge. There is a garden, the woods start a few hundred metres away, and there is no carpet in the house. If you travel with a dog, it is welcome here.

You need a car: Castelvecchio Subequo has little public transport. Two parking spaces are included.

The garden, the pergola and the barbecue are shared with the owners, who may stay in the flat below.

Wi-Fi · Masonry kitchen · Fireplace · Independent heating · Garden with patio and barbecue · Terrace facing Monte Sirente · Free parking, 2 spaces · Washing machine · TV · Workspace