Happy New Year! Hope your festive season was a holiday, Santa filled your sack and your nuts got toasted. Even though my hand held, electronic, palm top calendar is already skidding its merry way down the icy, unsalted, garden path of life towards Easter, the “Rent a Villa in Tuscany” International nerve centre still looks like one of Santa’s elves has run amok after overdoing the egg nog, every inch having been strewn with the latest Barbie accessories available (why people keep buying me them I’ll never know). Now that the last remnants of the brussel sprouts have been polished off (the only veg in the world nobody actually eats, “you’ll have them on your plate because it’s tradition”!!) and you’ve had your paper, party hat surgically removed, I’m sure your thoughts are already turning to summer hols! as my dear, old Granma used to say “you never really know a man until you’ve walked 4 moons in his moccasins”, why a wee wumman from Glasgow kept quoting Sitting Bull I’ve never understood, but you know in her quaint, homespun way she was right (or mad as a bucket of frogs!) you don’t really know a place until you’ve experienced it (bet you thought I wasn’t going to be able to think of a point to all this drivel!!) So, what I mean, what I’m trying to say, what I’m getting at is….. buy the t shirt, read the book , learn the lingo, cook the food and most of all… this summer .....
Rent a Villa in Tuscany!!!!!!!

-Intro
-Contents & Thanks
-Last Minute Offers
-“Which” online reports
-Long term rentals
-Learn Italian
-Flight auctions
-Competition
-New UK contact number
-How we did it
-Coming Soon

To “DISCOVER TUSCANY!” the www.rent-a-villa-in-tuscany.com Newsletter. We hope you enjoy reading it and find the information and advice useful when planning your holiday in Tuscany. We have lots of great ideas for the content but if have any ideas, comments or suggestions, please feel free to get in touch. We’d love to hear from you, just email us. Maybe there is something you need to know before you arrive or a great tip you’d like to pass on after your holiday, (when you get home don’t forget to sign our guest book on the site to tell us about your holiday and upload your favourite holiday snaps!).

Last Minute Offers
Why wait until summer, the exclusive, Sonesta Resort & Country Club has some fantastic offers valid until the end of March.
“Amazing Tuscany”- 4 day package, includes breakfast, daily green fees on Poggio dei Medici Golf course, welcome drink, welcome Tuscan dinner, Tuscan cooking lesson with lunch, 4 days Hertz car rental. only €695 per person.
“The Tuscany Experience” - 7 day package, includes breakfast, green fees on Poggio dei Medici golf course, welcome drink, welcome Tuscan dinner, Tuscan cooking lesson with lunch, Wine tasting in a Frescobaldi villa, 7 days Hertz car rental, only €1,250 per person.
Check out our Golf in Tuscany page for more details.

“Which” Magazine online
The consumer magazine “Which” is trusted by people world wide for its quality, unbiased information and reports. The “Which” website is full of useful info including reports on Tuscany, holiday insurance, cheap airfares, using mobile phones abroad. If you sign up for a FREE 30 day trial, the reports are all available and they give you a FREE digital camera. Can’t say fairer than that! www.which.co.uk

Long Term Rental
Was your New Years Resolution to escape the daily grind, the 9-5? Maybe you are even swithering over a life changing move to live here! We’ve recently been contacted by someone who is writing a book and wants to rent a villa for a couple of months. A number of our owners will long term rent their properties in low season and you can make enormous savings. So, if you fancy trying Tuscan life for a couple of months, get in touch or if you are interested in an investment, we know of a number of properties for sale. For more details Contact us.

Learn Italian
Anyone who has been to Italy knows that the locals appreciate it when you try to communicate (especially the friendly local policemen), and in some country areas not many folks speak English. It also adds to the enjoyment of your stay when you can understand menus and ask for even basic items. The next few winter months are perfect for learning the basics before your summer break. If you have time, local evening classes can be a good way to start or if your time is limited, an excellent way to learn is online. The BBC has a well designed series of FREE online courses. They fully use the powers of the web (sound, video etc) and lots of back up materials are available. "Learn Italian

Flight Auctions
As mentioned in one of our past issues, there are a lot of bargains to be had bidding in online flight auctions. All you’ll need is some patience and a bit of luck. At this time of year you could be lucky finding good deals on summer flights (especially if you’re coming from N. America or further away). Check out issue#5 of our “Newsletter Back Issues”

Christmas Competition
We were totally underwhelmed by the reaction to our Christmas competition! No correct answers!! And I thought I’d made it too easy!! Oh well!! Last time I’m giving you lot the chance of winning €6 million (even though you didn’t win, the lottery draw was last night, but you could have!!) You could always sign up for your FREE digital camera with “Which” magazine instead!

New UK Contact Number
We pride ourselves on giving top quality, friendly help and advice to our customers. We know that many of you like to speak to a “human voice” when you are trying to decide which villa best suits your needs. We also know International call charges can be expensive. We are about to launch a new service, a UK 0871 local call rate contact number. When you dial the number your call will be redirected to our Italian number but at UK local call rates. We hope you’ll find this service useful and look forward to hearing from you.

How we did it!
It is a sad fact that more than 97% of online businesses fail. They may have “pretty” sites but no one looks at them. How have we managed to build a site, which is in the top1% of the net and receives thousands of hits per month? We use a package of programmes called “Site Build It!” They are superb, clear, well written and you don’t need to be “technical” to use them. They are excellent value for money and have one of the best customer support teams on the web. Most importantly they create traffic (ie business). There is no competition, if you want to start a web based business (almost any business) or if you have any questions about the programmes, drop us a line or check out “Create a site like ours!

Coming Soon
We have lots of great new ideas for the site, which we will be working on in 2004. As we are getting more and more enquiries from people who found out about us by “word of mouth” we are working on a “reward” scheme to say thanks to those who recommend us to others. Another new idea is our “Gift Voucher” scheme. Imagine arriving at your villa and finding a voucher for a hot air balloon flight or a trip to the Ferrari test track. These vouchers could also be bought in advance for Birthday or Christmas gifts. When the scheme is complete we will let you know the details. Looking forward to hearing from you and seeing you in Tuscany in 2004

That’s all folks

Have a happy, peaceful 2004

Jim

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