This is a perfect get-away for those that want a little bit of everything, whether relaxation by the pool, wine tasting at one of the local vineyards, exploration of the seaside and beautiful beaches to the west, and mountain range to the east, of Europe's most famous (I think) and Italy's longest road, Via Appia. 30 minutes comfortable train ride to Rome. Fantastic (and rather inexpensive) restaurants in the area.
The apartment (entire bottom floor of the owner's house including exclusive use of the garden and the pool) is unique with its medieval charm yet very comfortably equipped for modern days requirements. Very well equipped kitchen (and fantastic seafood to buy in the near-by supermarket) and nice eating spaces both inside and outside. The two double rooms (on our request the owners had put the two twin beds together as a double bed), each with private baths (excellent jacuzzi in one of them), are situated in two separate parts of the house and made the house ideal to share for two couples.
The village of Sermoneta is charming, the people are extremely friendly and seem surprisingly unfamiliar with foreign tourism (which we definitely think was a big plus!!). Italian spoken almost exclusively, but we managed to understand and make ourselves understood without problems. We will miss our morning excursions to the village lovely bakery and little mini markets for prosciutto, salami, mozzarella and other local goodies to be savored at a late breakfast in the garden.
Lovely welcoming by the owners, whose company we thoroughly enjoyed over a (or two or three....) glasses of wine on their terrace on our last night. The privacy of the two entities (owner's and guest's areas) are very well preserved and not intrusive at all (well, we hope we weren't!!!). The fact that the pool wasn't top notch clean (still able to take a dip in it though) when we arrived and the internet did not function during the first days was due to local bureaucracies and inefficiencies that make Italy what it is (confusing, frustrating, but oh so lovely) and we must commend the owners on their ability to solve the problems as swiftly as they did. This, we know from numerous previous trips to Italy, is a feat in itself and rarely have we seen problems solved as quickly as they were by Susan and Adrian!
The only low point - the excess luggage fee paid on our flight home due to all the nice local wines and food hiding in our suitcases....next time we come by car!!!