About Us
We are an American family who love to travel the world. Fifteen years ago, when both our children started attending the Lycee Francaise in San Francisco, we began to travel to France often. Soon we fell in love with the Côte d’Azur and rented a series of homes in Villefranche-Sur-Mer and Saint Jean Cap Ferrat until one day, it occurred to us that we’d like to own here permanently. By this time, we knew the area well.
We feel confident recommending the house and the area to you as a vacation spot because we know there is something here for everyone. We’ve been here as a couple, we’ve been here with small children, we’ve been here with teens, and now we come here with our adult children. Our eighty-something-year-old parents have vacationed here both with us and on their own and love it as much as we do.
We’ve outfitted the house with the things that we think you would want in a home because we want them too: fast and free Internet; an intercom system; a smart TV in every room; authentic local art, high-end appliances, unique quality furnishings. We take care of our home, and we expect that you will too. But we also know that no one enjoys vacations where they have to tiptoe around the fragile bibelots dotting the premises. We’ve taken care to make the house comfortable and livable while still including all of life’s necessities.
Our rental includes twice-weekly maid service, as well as access to a concierge (formerly the concierge at the Palace in Monaco) who will assist with any issues that arise as well as helping you procure reservations, tickets, and other services (such as massage, chefs, yachting, performing arts events, and the like.) And of course, we will leave you information on some of the wonderful local restaurants and markets.
Whether you are looking to spend your time going to museums and gardens, soaking up the sun on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais, reclining on a chaise lounge next to our pool or at the beach, or lingering in small cafes, we think you will love your vacation at Villa Hippocampo.
Origin of the Hippocampo Name
Hippocampo means seahorse in Italian. When we visited a small maritime museum in Ischia, an island off the coast of Italy, we fell in love with these beautiful, ancient, and exotic creatures. We decided to name the villa, then under construction, “Villa Hippocampo” in honor of the sea and the Italian Coast, which we could see in the far distance. As it turned out, the seahorse is the unofficial mascot of Villefranche-sur-Mer, and a bronze statue of a seahorse is displayed prominently in the center of town. The coincidence has made us realize that our choice of Villefranche-sur-Mer was just “meant to be.”
