Think Sicily wins Best Villa Company in Conde Nast Traveller Readers Awards

Readers of the prestigious travel magazine Condé Nast Traveller have voted Think Sicily the top villa rental company in the world.

Huw and Rossella Beaugié, the founders and managing directors of the company, picked up the award at the ceremony in London on Wednesday night.

"After ranking in the top ten consistently over the last few years, we are hugely proud to receive this accolade," said Huw. "Our thanks go to everyone who voted for us, to all those who have travelled with us over the last 10 years, to our fantastic team and to our wonderful villa owners."

In the voting, Think Sicily never scored less than 82 and sealed the win by receiving top marks for its range of villas and presentation of villas.

In the same awards, readers voted Italy as their favourite country for holidays, while Sicily was voted 11th best island destination in the world. In the overall Top 100 listings, Italy came 5th and Think Sicily was the only specialist Italy operator to make the cut, coming in at a remarkable 83rd.

Think Sicily was founded in 2002 after husband and wife team Huw and Rossella gave up their careers (engineer and cell biologist respectively) to pursue a passion: they thought that Sicily had the most impressive mixture of history, culture, gastronomy, climate and natural beauty of anywhere they had ever visited and they wanted to share it with other discerning travellers.

Think Sicily rapidly grew into the leading up-market villa rental company for Sicily, offering the most desirable villas, specialist knowledge and an on-the-ground support network that was voted the best of any villa company by readers of Condé Nast Traveller a few years ago.

In 2010, the company's passion for the south of Italy saw the launch of Think Puglia, now provider of the most desirable luxury masserie, restored trulli and sea-front villas with pools in the region.

“We've come a long way in 10 years,” said Rossella. “Our clients and our owners have given us so much encouragement and satisfaction and it is thanks to them that we have achieved what we have. Our goal is simple: to hear our clients tell us that they've just had the best holiday of their lives.”


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Surprising Sicily

Hi - I'm Nigel. I've been leading tours with Ramblers Worldwide Holidays since 2004. 

I don't think it's any one thing that makes a destination so special. It's the rich combination of the natural beauty, the history, the architecture, the food, the people; all the different layers contribute to the real spirit and personality of a place. There is such an incredible wealth of varied scenery and culture within Europe I think there's really almost no need to venture further afield!

My upcoming tour to Sicily is one of my favourites to lead, I love walking in Italy. The history is absolutely fascinating; successive Greek, Carthaginian, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Spanish, Neapolitan, British, Piemontese, Fascist, American and Mainland Italian occupations have all left their mark. I absolutely love the way that on a single walk, one can spot evidence of these periods scattered at random in the countryside.

Our tours look at the close intertwining of the surviving relics of radically different historic cultures in an awesome natural landscape. For example, on the morning of the first day at Francavilla, we head up the hill to the ruined Norman castle, from where there is a fabulous view across the Arab citrus orchards and the Greek citadel of Castiglione to the stately, smoking, snow-capped bulk of Mount Etna. It is truly magical.

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