The villa is part of the hillside Orbeta estate built in the mid-1970s which has recently been renamed L'Aspré. However, this new name has largely been ignored so far, with the exception of one new roadside sign. In the summer the hillside is often cooled by breezes not felt down in the town, making it a popular place for the Spanish locals to move to during the warmer months. Our immediate neighbours are a mixture of Spanish, German and English, with a large proportion of them being resident all year round. However some villas like ours are available for holiday lets.
The residents of the estate share the use of a swimming pool conveniently located around 300 metres from the villa, beside the excellent El Cantaro restaurant. The pool is divided into two sections, one suitable for swimming and the other a shallow children's pool for the younger ones. The pool is available at no extra cost to our visitors from 11:00 to 19:00 during the summer season - which is usually from May 1st to September 30th. However, we have recently found that the new owner of the El Cantaro has a more flexible attitude and sometimes extends access to the pool if weather conditions are favourable (as in early October this year). Whilst the El Cantaro is near the top of the hill (the pool and pool-bar can be seen in the picture), three other bar/restaurants are a similar distance away at the bottom of the hill. You're never far away from really good and remarkably priced food and drink at our villa. The town of Orba starts just beyond the restaurants at the bottom of the hill, where there are many more interesting places to eat and drink. You can go out to eat locally every evening for a week, and never have to go back to the same place twice as there are eleven restaurants that we know of in and around the town. Dependant upon the restaurant you choose, the style of food varies from Spanish specialities, through pizzas and pastas, to fish and chips.