Villa Toriani be afraid-June 08

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After careful planning for 6 adults and 7 children we rented this large Villa overlooking the town of Lucca. Villa Torianni. Pool, large living space, plenty of sleeping quarters. We used it as base to tour Tuscany. Returning the last day before the other families and tired from a fabulous 3 week trip we relaxed and began to pack. it was our last night. The other couples had one additional day. The care taker had said the strange man in the apartment in the villa was his father in-law. Right! Villa Toriani has no safes in the rooms, it is located on a road to a winery where there is regular local traffic. I went to the pool with the kids while my wife was packing. She came to the pool for 15 minutes to wake up and returned to the room. All of our valuables were stolen! It turned out there was an outside door hidden by shutters. The steel security bars had been unlocked either by the maid or the strange man living in the quarters to make it look like a break-in. The shutters extended out from the line of windows and completely hid the breakin. The small door knob latch had a hair line crack with minmal damage and could have been kicked open by a 9 year old. The police showed up and didn't even look in the apartment downstairs. The man downstairs said he saw nothing! Nobody saw a thing. The police are a joke in Italy. The Villa is offered under a number of names by a multitude of on line brokers. Please research more extensively than we did! Make sure you have room safes. The owner said he would not refund the rental and would not do a thing. I was told Italy is not as safe as it used to be! We believe this was an inside job and found out the Villa bookings were down dramatically! All of our emergency money was gone, credit cards, video and digital camera's with photos from the entire trip. They left our passports so they were sure we would leave the country. If you rent villa toriani you will be sorry! Italy is a beautiful historic country and we have been there multiple times. Do not let down your guard and find a Villa with a more concerned owner that has taken measures that allow you to secure your personal items. What we miss most are the videos and photos of the trip. I hope this information will assist you to have safe travels.

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