Sexy South America: The classic Uruguayan summer resort of...

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Buy Obama's Vineyard Retreat!: President Obama's de facto "summer White...

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, September 8, 2011, by Sally Kuchar

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On the Market: Summer Homes on Fishers Island, Blue Blood Not Required

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, August 2, 2011, by Rob Bear

The summertime haven of Fishers Island, located off the eastern Connecticut coast but belonging to New York, has been a retreat for blue-blooded preppy types for years, in part due to its out of the way location. Commuting from NYC requires a three-hour drive to New London, Conn. (two-hours from Boston) and a ferry or private plane service into Elizabeth Field. Convenient for those who draw their checks from a family trust, not so much for the workaday nouveau riche. The real estate, however, is alluring, the product of old money's penchant for preservation, and you'll get more for your money here than in the highway-, train-, and Jitney-fed Hamptons. This waterfront estate—5,000 square feet on 11.4 acres—features a deep-water dock, seven bedrooms, and an unusual outbuilding—a stellar observatory built in 1930, complete with refracting telescope—for $3.5M.

? Lacking a true water view, the Hilt House, as this shingled manse is known, comes in at a much lower price point than the sprawling estate above, but it makes up for the wooded views with classic architecture and unmolested interiors. The wall-to-wall carpeting will have to go, but one has to assume there's some gleaming hardwood hiding under there. The three-story five bedroom is asking $775K.

? This place might have the wood floors already exposed, but the rest of the house could use a little work. At least that classic facade is still largely intact, though some of the more ornate detailing has gone by the wayside. How do we know this? This listing agent is kind enough to include a yellowed photo of the house in its heyday. The $519K price tag should leave enough for the touch ups.

? This six-bedroom house might not be furnished to everyone's taste, but the interiors are well-kept and the swimming pool, with its surrounding stone patio, cabanas, and hedges, is one of the best on the island. If you want the best, expect to pay. This island pad, despite having no water view, is priced at $1.8M.

? This classic cottage, though it sits on just a third of an acre, commands a $1.5M price tag thanks to a peek at Long Island Sound through old growth trees. The location on Mansion Hill across from the Hay Harbor Club affords easy access to diversions like golf and tennis and proximity to the docks, while seven bedrooms ensure the next owner could fill his or her score card for the summer.

· Observatory Estate [Mystic Isle Realty]
· The Hilt House [Mystic Isle Realty]
· Hansen House [Mystic Isle Realty]
· Brooks Point Road [Mystic Isle Realty]
· 8 Mansion Hill [Mystic Isle Realty]

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Globe Trotting: Rent Opera Legend Luciano Pavarotti's Summer House in Italy

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, July 26, 2011, by Rob Bear

When the famous operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti passed away in 2007, he left this summer villa on the Adriatic to his heirs, along with an impressive $474M fortune amassed over his 45 year career. The villa, one of the late tenor's many properties around the world, is now for rent to vacationers with a taste for classical music and, it seems, bold colors. Located in the resort community of Pesaro, Italy—where, coincidentally, 19th-century opera composer Gioacchino Rossini was born—this hillside villa is within walking distance of the beach and features a tennis court, a music room, a bocce court, and a gym, and can sleep up to 23 people in its 10 bedrooms. Staying at the famous maestro's compound costs $27K per week in high season.
· Villa Giulia [Ville in Italia]

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Ikea's Midsummer Celebration: To celebrate the summer solstice next...

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, May 27, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

To celebrate the summer solstice next month, Ikea will not release a controversial TV commercial satirizing the Swedish tradition of Midsummer but rather host a huge Midsummer party at stores. From this weekend on: discounts. June 17: a buffet that will surely include those meatballs. [previously; CurbedWire]

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Rent, Don't Buy: Five Staggeringly Expensive Summer Getaways for Fat Cats

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, April 28, 2011, by Rob Bear Photos: Sandpiper Rentals

For a truly extravagant summer vacation, there's no better venue than a palatial pad in one of America's tried and true summer resorts. But these days, despite the recession, prices for these premier vacation homes are climbing higher and higher (just ask the folks over at Curbed Hamptons). So for all you moguls and captains of industry, we've found some of the best, and most expensive, summer haunts in five of America's classic summer destinations. Let's start on the preppy Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard, where this low-slung five bedroom nestles into the scrub brush on the outskirts of Edgartown (above). With views over Slough Cove and Great Pond to the Atlantic, stone patio, and swimming pool, this 4,800-square-foot cottage is asking $180K per month in high season.

— In Bridgehampton, N.Y., this newly-constructed shingle-style spread has been attracting plenty of attention. First, the landlocked estate went on sale for close to $60M, then, last summer, the owner—Hamptons luxury homebuilder Joe Farrell—started asking $500K for two weeks in July. Well it turns out that scheme worked, because it rented for full price—$35,714 per day. Want to see some of the outrageous amenities at work? Watch Farrell's niece and nephew lead the tour, courtesy of MTV's Teen Cribs. Anyway, this entertaining monstrosity popped back up on the rental market this year, same $250K-per-week price tag.

? For a little less high-profile chicanery, head north to the blue blood bastion of Mount Desert Island, Maine. In the village of Northeast Harbor, this hillside charmer sleeps up to twelve and rents for the relative bargain price of $58K per month. Plus, there are waterviews, a small private beach, and a yacht mooring for that perfect Maine lifestyle. The only downside is the remote location, some five hours by car from Boston.

? Across the continent, in Malibu, Calif., former Million Dollar Listing star Chad Rogers has the listing for this six bedroom beachfront estate in the Malibu Colony. No wonder he was always talking up that Colony exclusivity: this place is asking a whopping $110K per month. But ol' Mr. Rogers is going to have to search high and low for a renter who can get along with the schizo decor.

? Back on the Atlantic coast, this Nantucket spread with six bedrooms (including two master suites) is aiming for those easily wowed by design name-drops. The listing lets potential renters know they'll be sleeping beside Brunschwig & Fils wallpapers, lounging on solid teak pool furniture from McGuire's Portico Collection, and goes so far as to mention the "custom-made wood and honeycomb blinds by Great Windows." This sort of detail is usually more appropriate for a sales pitch, but when you're forking over $165K a month, it's nice to know where that cash is going.

· Summer Rental Roundupse [Curbed Hamptons]
· 17 Forever Wild Way [Sotheby's]
· 612 Halsey Lane [Corcoran]
· The Sandcastle coverage [Curbed Hamptons]
· Teen Cribs (Season 2, Episode 1) [MTV]
· Seaward [Knowles & Co.]
· Malibu Colony [Chad Rogers]
· Lily Pond [Time & Place]

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New From West Elm: Nothing says "summer" quite like a...

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, March 21, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Nothing says "summer" quite like a bunch of pillows and blankets drifting idly on a lake in a rowboat! We just snuck a peek at photos from the new West Elm catalog; this summer, the furnishings chain has plans to introduce kitchenware—stoneware, bright textiles—and expand its current outdoor collection to include the "Dexter" line of driftwood furniture, among others. [CurbedWire]

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