THE FACTS ABOUT LA FAVORITA

Italy Sicily

La Favorita is a 300-year-old former hunting lodge five minutes' drive from the south-western coastal town of Marsala. It is an atmospheric aristocratic pile, with worn but polished tile floors, 18th-century oil paintings and antiques, a lived-in grand salon and formal dining room. There are six bedrooms - including a 'children's wing' with two twin bedrooms and one single - and plenty of updated bathrooms. The grounds resemble public gardens, with a palm-lined avenue through banks of oleanders backed by banana trees and plenty of benches, chairs and tables. A small cottage with its own lap-pool can be rented separately. A caretaker lives in the grounds. SLEEPS 12 in the main house; four in the cottage BEST FOR A large family or two WHY The cook prepares breakfast, lunch and dinner six days a week WHY NOT If you harbour Modernist tendencies or love straight lines COST £3,170£5,910 for the house and cottage CONTACT CV Travel (0870 606 0013; www.cvtravel.co.uk)