Nothing is compulsory

Warm water under the open sky

There is something especially pleasant about the air being cool while you are immersed up to your neck among bubbling water and feeling the warmth spread through you.

The outdoor jacuzzi at Villa Badino accommodates up to six people. Enough for the friends with whom the conversation never seems to end. Or for that part of the evening when the glasses are left nearby, the mountain has fallen silent and nobody looks at the time anymore.

Sometimes the best activity is simply to stay a little longer.

A lazy afternoon by the pool

On warm days, the pool in the garden is exactly as large as it needs to be.

Not for sporting achievements and not for counting lengths.

For cooling off. For sunshine. For a book that has remained unfinished for months. For children's laughter nearby. For one more coffee that, this time, has no reason to be drunk in a hurry.

For those afternoons when the most important question is whether to move from the sun lounger back into the water.

Let the warmth do the rest

After a long walk, after a cold winter day or simply because you can.

Close the sauna door and leave the outside world on the other side.

There are no notifications. No deadlines. No next meeting. There is pleasure for the senses and complete immersion within yourself.

Only warmth and a little time for yourself.

The evening begins around the fire

The barbecue is not simply another amenity in the garden.

It is the place where someone inevitably starts giving advice on exactly how the meat should be turned. Someone else pours the drinks. Someone brings the salad. The children, if there are any, appear exactly when everything is ready.

And then, somehow, everyone ends up around the same table.

The food, of course, matters.

But years from now you probably will not remember exactly what you put on the grill.

You will remember the people around it.

Step outside

Rila begins just beyond the gate.

Not every walk needs a route, an elevation profile and a final destination. Sometimes it is enough simply to set off along the road and see where it takes you.

A few hundred metres away are the Badino pyramids. Around you are the hills, the forest, the village roads, the old Church of St Demetrius and that particular calm of small mountain places where nobody expects you to arrive anywhere at precisely the right time.

Take comfortable shoes.

You can decide the rest along the way.

Or simply stay together

Not every experience needs an attraction.

Sometimes people come to one place precisely because they have not had enough time for one another for far too long.

Villa Badino has a large hall for the moments when the group wants to be together — for conversations, games, celebrations or simply a long evening that nobody is in a hurry to end.

The conversations become longer.

And somewhere between the words and the glow of the emotions, you may remember why you decided to come together in the first place.