Villa Augusta

We spent four days at this INCREDIBLE villa. From the port it’s a brisk 20-minute walk on a narrow, dark mountain road with a slope over 45 degrees. Just right for kids and older people, apparently, and anyone over 40. The room is a luxurious 12 square meters, bathroom included. In that space there’s a 10-square-meter closet, two chairs that block the route from bed to bathroom, two postwar bedside tables with prewar lampshades, and a chest of drawers. Instead of air conditioning, there’s a fan that sounds like a tractor or lawnmower in your ear. INCREDIBLE that they still had this in 2020, when you can buy an air conditioner at Lidl for €200, though they have one at home. The shower has a handheld head because its holder is broken, and the doors don’t shut, so you can wash yourself and bathe at the same time. Wet clothes and beach towels have to go over the garden chairs, since the lady says a drying rack isn’t a service for guests. There’s no gate key, so the owners take turns sleeping and you have to ring every time you come in. Croissants are offered only on Sundays. The other days it’s jam and toast. One Sunday I found a squashed ant in the dough. INCREDIBLE. VOTE: 10!

You’ll need a car or motorbike to get to the apartment, but from Ischia’s port it’s only about a minute by vehicle. Once there, the owner was very kind, the room was clean, and the shower was large. The shared spaces were spacious and really nice.

It’s a beautiful villa, and breakfast was decent, but the hospitality and empathy were lacking. Guests arriving on foot have a hard time reaching it and may need several paid taxis. The rooms were difficult to open and close, and there’s no air conditioning, just a noisy fan. They didn’t provide drinking water. A shuttle could be planned, perhaps as an extra part of the package, since the villa doesn’t fully meet tourists’ needs as it is.

We were welcomed so well and had a great stay. Everything was clean and quiet, and the lady’s mother was incredibly kind.