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Location

Castle is situated in Umbria, i.e. the center of Italy, 1/2 hour from the 8 lane super highway, the Strada del Sole that connects all of Italy. It is 2 1/2 hours from Rome airport by car,|1/4 hours from Florence, 1 hour from Adriatic seashore and Rimini which has a jet landing strip, and is within one hour car drive from a dozen most attracted from all over the world. It is 1/2 hour away from Perugia which has an English Speaking University.

 

Umbria at hand

BY CAR: the highway A1 MILAN-NEAPLES takes you up to VALDICHIANA (coming from the North) or to ORTE (coming from the South). From there you can take the motorway E45 that crosses the whole region Umbria.

BY AIRPLANE: we recommend the airport Leonardo Da Vinci in Fiumicino - Rome

BY TRAIN: trains from Rome Central Station "Termini" heading to ANCONA or FOLIGNO. Get off in TERNI where you can take the train heading to PERUGIA

Trains from Florence Central Station "Santa Maria Novella" heading to FOLIGNO. Get off in PERUGIA or PERUGIA - PONTE SAN GIOVANNI where you can take the train heading to TERNI

Landscape

The Umbria region is situated in the centre of Italy and is the only region there with no coastline. Often called the "Green Heart of Italy", Umbria is a beautiful, unspoiled, countryside area of rolling forested hills, vast grassy meadows covered with flowers, large olive grove plantations, and several lakes and deep valleys. The landscape is dotted with many picturesque medieval villages, and the people of the area are known for their distinctive cuisine, friendliness and hospitality. This wonderful, tranquil region offers visitors a gorgeous, clean, natural environment, as well as medieval art and architecture, and many sites of historical interest in the countryside.

Cuisine

Umbria is well known for the art and architecture of its hill-perched towns, Perugia, Assisi, Orvieto, Spoleto, Gubbio and Todi, and for the legends of its many saints, St Francis and St Clare of Assisi, St Benedict of Norcia. But connoisseurs also know that nowhere in Italy are the pleasures of country cooking and local wines offered more graciously than in Umbria.
Since the region has no access to the sea, its peoples, beginning with the ancient Etruscans who inhabited territories on opposite sides of the river Tiber, have always relied on the generosity of the land. There are few secrets to Umbrian cooking: fresh vegetables and fruit, dense green olive oil, roast meat, poultry and game, pecorino cheese, black truffles and the herbs, greens and mushrooms that grow spontaneously

Wine

Umbria has long been renowned for its white wine, thanks mainly to the historical prominence of Orvieto. But evidence is now irrefutable that its land has an aptitude for a multitude of varieties, white and red: Sagrantino, Torgiano rosso, Grechetto, Chardonnay.

Orvieto was once the most celebrated of Italian whites as a semisweet or abboccato wine, praised by the popes, princes and painters who stayed in the hill-top town north of Rome with its splendid Cathedral and sweeping views over the Umbrian landscape. But as tastes changed, Orvieto was modified from a soft, golden wine into a pale, pure, crisp creature of modern enology

Olive Oil

The cultivation of the olive in Umbria dates back to the first century B.C. Over the centuries, the cultivation of the olive went through a series of developments and now constitutes an important part of the regional economy.

Umbrian olives benefit from special climatic conditions that allow the fruit to ripen very gradually and so maintain a very low acid content.

The maximum acidity of Olio Extravergine d'Oliva is 0.65 %. The colour ranges from green to yellow. The scent is medium fruity with leafy tones, while the taste is fruity with bitter and peppery tones. Olive-growing in Umbria is carried out exclusively on the hillsides of the region, a practice that has impeded the widespread use of mechanised harvesting.

Scenes from the land of Art and Nature
....where the landscape is perfectly suited to human needs, displaying the right balance between cultivated land and old buildings…

From Village to Village along back roads
Following winding back roads among the swelling undulating hills you will rejoice in the vision of handsome estates and gardens, Medieval hill-top villages and rows of vineyards and silvery olive trees.

Small is beautiful
Nothing here is out of place, everything is small, quiet and perfect, thanks to the rigour purity and perfection of the architectural shapes

The pleasure of hospitality
Immersed in green woods, framed by thick wild vegetation, surrounded by Romanesque and Medieval abbeys and churches, all villas, apartments, country houses are the ideal place where you can spend relaxing holidays and unforgettable days

The Land of Inspiration
The harmony of the landscape was, is and will be always the perfect Muse for all artists, who chose and will choose Umbria as their place to live and create their masterpieces.

 

 

 

Umbria through the eyes of foreign artists

The Thousand and One Notes
The rhythm of jazz blends perfectly with the harmonious notes of classical music forming a magic scent that spreads through the narrow streets of ancient villages: Umbria Jazz, TodiArte Festival, Il Festival dei Due Mondi, La Giostra della Quintana, La Corsa dei Ceri, medieval parades, famers’ festivals, art exhibitions.