Life at the Villa

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This is a long story today but does it get any better ? It's about our first few days at the villa. Life’s good but at the villa it’s a paradise. It’s just so nice ! Being here at this little spot of nature’s beauty makes one think of other lifestyle opportunities. It will be with great disappointment and reluctance that the eight of us will leave here to return to the ‘normal’ lives we actually live. Being here has given some of us greater insights and an answer to “What would you do if you won the lottery ?”

I don't know why this didn't show up but if you click the "villa" on the upper left corner of the black square it will produce the picture. So I added this comment and on reviewing before posting, now it works. Go figure !

One easily adapts to this lifestyle and certainly could get used to it, especially with the independence offered by those Wednesday and Saturday night events that one can participate in for only a couple bucks. Wouldn’t it be nice ? But we can all dream can’t we, and life at the villa might be one way to look after part of a jackpot.

Our villa is a stone structure about 300 years old with walls about two feet thick set in the middle of a vineyard. With three couples and two single persons on this tour the five bedrooms of the villa are perfect. It is pretty large and I won’t even hazard a guess of how many square feet. Use your imagination to think “castle like” and I’ll try and take you on a tour.

I’ll try and tell you where we are first and if you play with my friend Google’s maps maybe you can get close. The villa is somewhat to the North-east of Porto via a nice new tolled freeway and getting here we go through Guimares, the largest centre near us. Continuing on to the villa from Guimares we leave the freeway system and travel on regional highway number N206 for about 40 km to Arco de Baulhe where we continue on for about another 12 - 15 km on a smaller, (narrower) road till we see a little “Turismo Rural” sign and a signpost pointing the way to Moimenta. Heading off to Moimenta the road becomes even more rural as we drive 2km till we see a villa named ‘Casa do Valle’ with a big green gate. These are our neighbours and family relations of our landlord. The road to our villa, or more like a trail, goes up the hill just round the corner from Casa do Valle. Up the hill and we park at the rear of our villa.

When we pulled up to the gates of Casa do Valle we were met by Fran, the friendliest smiling Portuguese lady babbling away in Portuguese and waving her arms about. Naturally we all smiled and babbled back to her in English. Eventually we all got the idea we were to go around a corner and up. That’s when we first saw “the trail”. So we started up, but how far ? Till the road seemed to be getting to small and narrow! We managed to get turned around by backing into a little drive between a couple houses and just sort of sat there a few moments wondering and waiting to see if that nice Portuguese lady was maybe walking up the hill to give us further direction. This was early Saturday evening and some of the ‘locals’ were sitting in front of their houses, and a couple old ladies were doing laundry at a stone tub off to the side of the road a little further up the trail from us.

After a while with no nice Portuguese lady in sight we decided this was not the place and maybe we had driven past where we were supposed to be so about the same time as we began to attempt to turn around and head back down one of the Portuguese men who had been sitting in front of the houses up the trail, (probably laughing and joking about the touristas) came down the hill, helped us get turned around, and pointed us back down the hill. Halfway down we saw Fran smiling and waving her arms pointing to a small trail we had past on the way up the hill. Driving past Fran and through an open gate we came to the back of the villa.

Getting to the villa from Porto was actually quite easy and uneventful. But that last little trail up the hill to the door of the villa ! !

Antonio, the keyholder, showed up a few moments later and showed us through the villa. From the parking area at the rear of the villa we can see mostly the tiled roof of and one big green door. Through the door and into the villa we go down a few steps to the second floor main hall. The first door off to the right from this hall is a media / reading room with a fireplace and a wall of windows overlooking the valley and terraces. Next on the right are the stairs going down to the main floor. Then off to the left is another short hallway with two bedrooms to the right overlooking an enclosed courtyard. Back to the main hall and there is another doorway to a hallway that continues to the end of the building. Off this hallway are three more bedrooms, and the hallway sort of forms another side to the enclosed courtyard. Each bedroom has its own en suite plumbing and windows opening to a truly vista view of the valley. Some of the trees are just starting to change color and the hillsides are like a palette of color.

Downstairs there is a huge fully equipped kitchen with a gas / electric stove and all the conveniences. On one of the granite countertops there are a half dozen bottles of wine to welcome us. After all, we are in a vineyard and Antonio explains to us the types of wine produced here and points out the “wine house” across the valley were he brews his wines which are exported to France, Germany, Britain and throughout Europe under the Caso do Valle label. Here is maybe an opportunity to be a Liquor Agent (yeah right ! ) because he explains he used to export to Canada but has lost his contact.

The kitchen is to the right of the stairway from upstairs and a hallway leads to the right from the kitchen to another bedroom at the end of the hall past the laundry room, and a storage room, To the left of the stairway is a large dining room, about 15’ by 18’, with a table for ten. Beyond the dining room is the living room, about the same size, with a fireplace and piano.

Stepping outside we are on the terrace overlooking all these gorgeous views. There are large umbrellas for the terrace and there is a roll-up awning over a table just outside the kitchen. On a lower level of the terrace there is an outdoor barbeque. We are all duly impressed and excited but where is the pool? The pictures on the internet showed a beautiful blue pool ! It turns out that the pool is on another terrace and like the pictures on the internet it is complete with umbrellas, poolside furniture, and surrounded by green grass and terraced grape vines.

The villa is complete. It meets everyone’s expectations and is complete with three puppies.

It has hot and cold water running through the plumbing pipes but everyday we get our water by taking a couple large jugs and running down the hillside to the Caso do Valle where there is a natural artesian spring supplying wonderful water

It doesn’t take long to settle into “life at the villa” routine. Everyday has been gorgeous sunshine, 24 - 27 C fantastic dinners, coffee, wine, and beer. And it’s just so good ! ! In our first week here we seemingly have settled into a routine of alternating our activities. One day seems to be a “villa” day where we all just seem to hang around reading, soaking up the sunshine, taking short walks, and just plain relaxing. On the other alternate day we seem to adventure off to some other location for sights, sounds, and flavours.

Paradise found ! In another post I’ll include some interior pics of the villa.

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Photos

Villa Road
This is a raod ? Well we figured it out and got up.

Into the villa
The narrow gate we mastered over time

P:ool Terrace
Many hours "catching rays" here

Lifes tough on the patio
A nice patio which got lots of use

Villa Terrace
Just another wonderful part

Vineyard
The villa is in the middle of a "working" vineyard

The Villa
Here's just another picture of an old building

The veiws are gorgeous
Here and everywhere in Northern Portuga there are wonders to be seen

The views continue
Just another view from the villa

We have neighbours
Actually just another view from the villa