A New Destination for MarksPlaces

Easterleigh Cottage

Our next destination is the Cotswolds. A long search resulted in purchasing a traditional Cotswold stone cottage in the village of Great Rissington in the very heart of the Cotswolds. This stunning village has an excellent pub, a beautiful church, glorious views over the Costwolds and it’s not on the tourist trail. No souvenir shops, coaches or “attractions”, just a quiet, genuine village that even has its own school. The nearest larger villages are Burford (5 miles), Bourton-on-the-Water (3 miles), and Stow-on-the-Wold (5 miles). Each has its own attractions, including antiques shops, tea rooms, etc. We wanted to be able to come back to our own quiet village, away from the tourists, enjoy the country walks and walk to the pub after dinner if we felt like a few drinks!

Easterleigh Cottage will be four bedrooms and two bathrooms and is currently undergoing some work to bring it up to the usual Mark's Places standards. We will use local furniture and style wherever possible. It will be high quality throughout.

It will be ready to let from February and will, of course, be available for cosy winter weekends as well as long summer weeks.

Puglia

Judging by the Visitors Books this season, our second, went much better than the first. Teething problems were ironed out and there were no hitches apart from a giant electrical storm in June that darkened half of Puglia for a day! During the winter we are investing on more storage space around the trulli and permanent shade around the pool rather than umbrellas. The sun loungers and outdoor dining was so popular that we are adding more of both as well as adding a few more comfortable chairs inside. “Italian rustic” is great, but we all want to enjoy our creature comforts too. Finally, the local Puglian cooking has obviously been inspiring our guests. We are going to upgrade and add more in the way of cooking implements and crockery as guests seem to want to make some pretty exotic dishes.

Klosters

From the sitting room

The weather has been textbook-perfect this year; a great skiing season followed by a beautiful summer. Only a couple of guests were unlucky – but that’s always a risk in mountains. We are putting in new matching units in the kitchen alcove to give greater work surface area and adding more electrics to allow for a coffee machine. After six seasons of letting our chalet we give the prize to the Dutch who seem to take their coffee the most seriously! Yes, the coffee machine will be available soon and we will make sure that facility is available in Italy and the Cotswolds too.

Mark's Places Souvenirs

Souvenirs

Our Puglian property produces a small amount of its own olive oil and we have some spare. If you would like a bottle and have stayed with Mark's Places, please e-mail me. This year we have also started providing complimentary postcards, luxury soap, shampoo and bubble bath in our properties to add that special feel to your holiday.

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