A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME

This tiny house is called "Tonino," Little Tony. This is because for many years a very large man called Antonio lived in it. Makes sense.

It has three rooms, one down and two up plus a bathroom. It belongs to neighbours who, some time back, decided to do it up. They ran out of funds half way so we took over and finished the work in exchange for a four-year lease. We wanted it as a guest house. It was an agreeable distance from our own.

The original features are all still there, the fireplace with the thing for a cooking pot and the cooking pot, itself, plus a charcoal burning stove under a window and the traditional stone sink. A new under-counter fridge, a gas hob and a table and chairs, of course.

I let the old beamed ceilings, white walls and terracotta floors speak and kept it simple. The bed was large, comfortable and had crisp linen sheets. The bathroom was new and there was plenty of hot water, everything worked. It was really cute. I would call the decorating style monastic with comfort. You could sit under the grape arbor for morning coffee or evening wine. In August you could sit there and swat away the wasps that came by the busload for the grapes.

Our guests had different reactions to it. They were used to posher digs with us in Scotland. Some were quite sniffy, insulted even. Some were amused to be staying in such a rustic place. I thought of it as looking a gift house in the mouth. Some, however, loved it. They enjoyed opening the shutters in the morning and looking out at the view. They loved having a glass of wine on the terrace before strolling down to our house for dinner.

I have a theory about house guests. Having asked if they can stay, "suggested" themselves, as it were, they feel at a disadvantage and need to be reassured at every step that they are wanted. They judge this by the care taken with their accommodation and the food on offer, to say nothing of the quality of the wine. Not all guests, mind, just most.

When the four years were up we were offered an extended lease for a yearly sum. We declined.

The owners took over, filled it with furniture and put pretty pictures on the walls. They even managed to get two bedrooms out of the space upstairs.

It is now let as tourist accommodation. They are selling what we used to give away. We should have kept the lease and done the same thing.

This is the terrace on the other side of the house. Terrace