apartments on the sweetes hills

Have just returned from a 3 week trip to Europe, during which we very much enjoyed our stay in Apartment K of Linearis Holiday House for 4 nights. This two-level apartment, spacious for our family of 5, had 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (showers and bidets, no tubs), living room with TV, kitchen with stovetop (no oven), fridge, table and chairs. There is wifi available in the garden house by the pool (not in individual apts) and a washer/dryer are available for an extra fee, if desired. Unfortunately, there was an unprecedented heat wave ongoing during our stay, making the upper floor (with bedrooms) significantly hotter than the downstairs. Other renters from France and Germany seemed to take it all in stride though, not wilting as we were. In this case, the second level was probably to our detriment: with heat rising upwards, a ground floor unit would have been much cooler overall (our living room often found one or more of us retreating to it in the middle of the night! ). For us, this was the only detraction: an airconditioning unit upstairs would have made a world of difference, given the weather, and though Katia kindly provided us 3 fans to circulate air, we often felt as if we were in a convection oven, even with the windows wide open! Thankfully, the beautiful clean inground pool was available to start the day with a cool dip and also after long days of sightseeing, a wonderful respite from the heat. The location is a bit tricky to find, but is very well situated, close to San Gimignano, Sienna, Volterra, and 45minutes to Florence; we found the PAM supermarket in Poggibonsi relatively close and invaluable for provisions, a lucky thing as we were unable to find any restaurants in that town (?!); it was only on the last day that we drove to the cute little village of Barbarino Val d'Elsa several miles down the road and had a wonderful dinner there on the terrace as the sun set. (There was a cute restaurant on the way there, in St.Appiano, but it is apparently so popular that reservations are recommended; we five arrived for dinner and couldn't be accomodated!) Again, we would highly recommend this place for its location, ambience, and spaciousness, and can imagine how absolutely wonderful it is when the temperatures aren't in the high 80s ! Recommended for families, folks of all ages; one needs a car.