If Goldilocks were on her honeymoon, we're guessing she'd book a week at La Molinella, in San Leo Bastia. In this former Umbrian water mill near the Tuscan border, everything is just about the perfect size for two.

Through the wisteria-laden front door, the cozy but well-appointed kitchen takes up the ground floor and opens onto a postage-stamp-sized dining terrace.

Up a flight of stairs is the sitting room, where the only outsized thing is an enormous farm-style fireplace, ideal for chillier nights.

Up a few more steps, the bedroom is slung with beams and windowed on three sides-combine that with a bed that takes up most of the room (and by room, we mean floor) and you get the feeling of sleeping in a treehouse. Fling open all the windows and tuck under the mosquito netting for extra close-to-nature-ness. (Or camp out on the daybed on the front terrace which—yes—sleeps two.)

The better to be well-rested for a post-espresso morning dip in your jewel of a swimming pool, tucked amidst olive trees overlooking the sweeping valley. Or for a cooking class, which you can arrange with the owner, who lives nearby. Or just for puttering around the kitchen, popping out to the herb garden for a snip or two, and listening to the burbling of streams running along both sides of the cottage, reminding you of its past.

La Molinella is available for 7-day stays from April to October, for about €995 a week.

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