We felt we had come home from the moment we first arrived and were shown into our house by the wonderful Carla accompanied by her old dog, Indie. That, in 2008, was our first visit of many - each time with our own dog and one or more of our sons. There we would receive friends as though it had always been our home. We would read in the shade. We would sip Campari and Blood Orange juice gazing at the view. All our meals would be out of doors. In the evening we would dine and chat to the sound of the assiuoli calling to each other in the tree tops. We love it that there isn't a swimming pool. In such a setting it would be a crass and ugly intrusion. Gello may be modest but it isn't vulgar. And it's no inconvenience. When we want to bathe or lounge by the water's edge, there is a very fine, public, open air pool - an astonishing amenity in such a small place - in the nearest village, Ponteginori, scarcely five minutes away; and only a little further off is the seaside where we have spent many happy hours. Such excursions, though, delightful as they are, only build up the joy of returning to the hilltop's peace and the landscape it surveys. That feeling of coming home is worth going away for.