Exceptional Umbria

It’s sunny and hot in Italy. Oh yeah. My 2025 tour has started and I was very lucky to be fully booked well before the end of 2024.

Some of my group have been biking all over Tuscany already. Several have had a couple of days' rest, others have spent time with family in the UK and the remainder arrived directly from the long-haul flight. 

I chose to stay in Frascatti, which is 40 minutes from Fiumicino airport. It is unusual for me to have a one-night stop, but to gather everyone together, I selected a large Villa close to Rome. These villas are typical of Frascatti and the surrounding hills, this is where the Cardinals and nobility would spend their summers in the cooler, breezy air rather than stifling hot Rome.

Villa Tuscolana was enormous, with numerous bedrooms, elegant reception rooms, a chapel, gardens, and a wonderful outdoor conservatory where we enjoyed a lovely dinner on our first night.

Stuffed artichokes – a typical Roman dish; Carnaroli rice with sausage ragout and spinach; delicious beef with porcini mushroom; finishing  with rum baba.

Nevertheless, the most amazing sight was the lights of Rome in the evening. They glistened in the distance and were a spectacular view from our bedroom windows.

The itinerary for this tour is based around a week in Puglia. However, I was keen to return to Umbria with the group and it proved to be an excellent start.  Before arriving for our four nights in Montefalco, we visited the ancient Etruscan town of Orvieto. Perched up high on a rock platform, it was strategically very important. But for us, our strategy was getting to the top. I have been their many times and the funicular still does the job. The Duomo has one of the best facades in Italy. Luca Signorelli’s frescoes inside are world-famous. But the organ recital performed for another group was outstanding. The sound filled every space in the Duomo and we didn’t want to leave. Some of the group toured the vast caves under the town, but my lunch with a group was fabulous and derived from the rule. Never eat in the Main piazza or the first place you come to. Always walk up the side streets and you will be rewarded with local food for the locals, not for tourists.

Arriving in Montefalco required a bit of tactics. Our hotel, Palazzo Bontadossi, is located in the piazza – no buses, of course. So our baggage was transported in a car as we walked up the small hill into the Piazza, where our hotel is located, surrounded by restaurants, which was perfect!!

Palazzo Bontadossi is an  impeccable example of an historic building given a creative, clever renovation that can cross time seamlessly and provide an awesome experience.   

Each night we would return to our oasis in the heart of Montefalco and in the four nights we had 3 outstanding meals at Ristorante Teatro, L’Alchimista and Coccorone, along with a long lunch in Spello, which sadly didn’t reach the same standard. Montefalco is famous for delicious Sagrantino wine, and it was appropriate to include a wine tasting and my return to Carapace was a good idea.  The turtle-shaped winery is an award-winning creation by the sculptor artist Arnaldo Pomodoro. A turtle is slow, hard-backed, with wonderful, complex detail under its shell. The winery is an interpretation of this. To make Sagrantino, it takes time. Wine making needs to understand the terroir and to craft a wine that captures the essence of where it comes from.

Under the shell is an enormous tasting room and event space. Below that is a massive area, where the grapes arrive, sit in large stainless tanks to start the fermentation process, then onto barrels made from French, Austrian and Italian oak to sit for years.  Some are transferred onto terracotta Amphora.

Bottling, labelling and distribution take place down here too and as we walk up the elegant spiral staircase to enjoy our tasting, you can look back at the elegant light-filled barrel room that encases an equally exceptional private small tasting room.

Montefalco sits high in the Umbrian Valley. To the North is Perugia  - the largest city in the region and to the south the medieval hillside towns of Assisi, Spello, Trevi and Spoleto. They are all steep without exception.

Our days were filled with visits, and to our surprise, the Italian ingenuity has come to the fore. After a morning in the Ceramic town of Deruta, a steep walk up into Cortona, where we all viewed Fra Angelo’s famous painting of the ‘Annunciation’, some enjoyed a caprese salad lunch before heading back down to Perugia. Bus parking is now incredibly strict in Italy, and, we were delighted to find the new amazing ‘Mini Metro.’   Quick and efficient, it takes you from the car park to the centre of Perugia in less than 10 minutes. We were in time for the evening Passagiata, where Italians enjoy a gelato and a walk in the late afternoon.

Wine tasting at Carapace was a rather lovely start to the day prior to our time at the legendary Asssi. It’s a moving visit and this time we walked from the top down to the Basilica where the body of St Francis is in the lower crypt – but the Frescoes in the upper church by Giotto are a masterpiece.

Finally, a long lunch in my favourite village Spello, another lovely slow walk up through the streets renowned for the flowers lining the walls and steps. But, Spoleto held the best secret. A new Escalator with nine flights transported us all the way to the Rocca at the very top. It was then easy to do the walk around the top before walking back down the hill through Spello’s old town.

Returning to Montefalco, our hotel, piazza and tranquil surroundings was a treat each day. It is renowned for its beautiful linen, consequently a few NZ homes have rather lovely table mats, tables cloths and runners.

 I am usually required to choose a set menu for dinner each night and they portrayed the food and wine of the region perfectly . On the final night we had an own choice and most chose the renowned 1kg beef – served for 2 thankfully.

Umbria was great, made even better by the beautiful Pallazzo Bontadossi and the excellent food and wine.

As we took our last walk down to the bus after four nights here, I am sure everyone will have very fond and happy memories of the Umbrian region .