Batopilas is just a sleepy town tucked between cliffs and a river, with 19th-century villas, two small plazas and a rich silver-mining history.
"The difference is that now, unlike a couple of years ago, the local government realises it needs to heavily involve locals for job and revenue creation.'' Neighbouring Sira Beach House, which opened in 2010, is a slick, albeit pricey palm thatched roof and river-stone walled villa set among mature palm groves, uses solar heated water and organically treats recycled waste for its vegetable garden.
The Shire Hall, High Pavement, NG1 1HN; 0115 941 0410; ibericotapas.com Midsummer House The only restaurant with two Michelin stars in East Anglia is enviably located in a Victorian villa beside the river Cam.
Two young idlers, Frantz (played by Sami Frey and Arthur Claude Brasseurur), are drawn to a romantic girl named Odile Anna Karinaa) who lives in a villa by the river with her aunt and a wealthy lodger.
When he died he left all his works to the Italian state, and his studio home – an art-nouveau villa between the river and via Flaminia – was eventually converted into a museum where some 200 sculptures, 200 paintings and 300 graphic works are now displayed.
And in the river towns along the Hudson River, a villa known as "Les Nuits" sold for $4.35 million in Irvington.
A weather-battered villa on the raging river in Dartmouth offered gloomy refuge to an industrialist accused of murdering his mistress in "Betrayal".
In the mid-'90s, he acquired Villa Jako on the Elbe river, near Hamburg, and an apartment in Berlin.
The rise of the Escondido River forced the evacuation of 1,000 families in Villa de Fuente, as the river rose to carry through the town.
And as many as 28 residential villas will be offered along the river and golf course, on plots ranging from under a quarter acre to just over an acre.
Ghanem had a villa on the banks of the river where he had lived with his wife and three daughters.
