Our first house and pet sit in Italy! We had contact with Sofia and Guiseppe via www.mindmyhouse.com and www.housecarers.com We had a video chat to know each other and the place a little bit better and we were both enthusiastic. The sit was immediately confirmed.

This was our first sit in Italy and it was simply beautiful. The house is situated 8 kilometers from Lucca and we had a spacious backyard with a small pool, a nice vegetable garden and our privacy.

We had the pleasure to look after the 2 cute dogs Coco and Umbretta, the 2 cats Thelma and Tweety and a nameless hen and a chick from 1 week old! The dogs were off leash all the time, except when we had to leave the property without them; in that case we had to put them on a chain, otherwise they would follow us. The dogs are sooooo funny. Coco is very playful. We throwed sticks with him and we tried to chase him many times. He let himself out in the mornings for approximately an hour and he returned always without problems. Umbretta stayed on the property and she is a mouse hunter. She welcomed us once with a nice rat and she ate it as reward. The cats (Thelma and Tweety) and dogs went along with each other very well. Thelma was mostly on the property and close to us. Tweety came back daily (twice) to get her food and a little bit of attention. We also had the pleasure to look after a hen and a newborn chick. We monitored the hen and chick very closely and we protected them from the rain (we had a heat wave with 2 thunderstorms).

And last but not least, we had to take care of the vegetable garden! That was a nice bonus. We never ate soooo much tomatoes and cucumbers as in these 3 weeks….ha…ha. We also had many zucchinis and eggplants and we left some for the owners. The pumpkins started to grow as we left.

We worked 4 days a week from home and we had enough time to discover the beautiful area. We went to Lucca and Pisa, we visited the beaches and we went to Bagni di Lucca. Iwan did ride his road bike several times and it’s a cycling paradise. During our stay it was very warm/hot weather, but in house it was nice and cool.

Sofia, Guiseppe and their family with 3 kids and the pets are very relaxed and welcoming. We enjoyed this sit very, very much and we can recommend this definitely to other sitters.

Hopefully our calendars match again in the future.