Experiences

01

Sports

The crystal clear eco-friendly swimming pool has a salt-based filter - no eye goggles needed! And broad, shallow, non-slip steps for easy entry by toddlers or seniors. The area is equipped with teak furniture and is shaded by large parasols and a creeper-covered pergola. There is a refrigerator for cool drinks. It is the perfect place for relaxing with friends and family.

There is a bocce/boules pitch (this gives endless enjoyment to young and old, skilled and rookies) and a ping pong room with also table football and darts.

There are wonderful walks straight from the house (the young love leading 'adventure walks') - picnic stuff and cool box as well as knapsacks and walking sticks are available. Loads of books, jigsaw puzzles and indoor games. For the younger generation there is a swing and a climbing frame.

Tennis is in Città di Castello, 10 minutes away. There is a championship golf course half an hour away and a congenial 9 hole course in the next valley. Riding on beautiful cross country paths is available at a B&B nearby. These same paths are brilliant for bicycling - bikes can be hired in Città di Castello. Water sports can be found at Lake Trasimene (one hour away) and canoeing on the Tiber at Città di Castello.

02

Shopping & Eating

The nearby medieval town of Città di Castello, a truffle and antiques centre, is reached in 15 minutes and has a range of supermarkets, shops, banks and restaurants, as well as a weekly organic food market and monthly antique market. Arezzo (45 minutes) holds a renowned monthly antiques market.

Great restaurants are to be found in every surrounding hilltop town and village, as well as on Lake Trasimene, and the Chianti region of Tuscany is an hour away. Florence (1 hour 40) and Bologna (2 hours) have some of the world's best dining, shopping and antique shops.

03

Culture

Piero della Francesca (c. 1412-92) is arguably the top artist of the area (though Perugino, Pinturicchio, Signorelli and Giotto might disagree). Piero's Madonna del Parto (Madonna of Childbirth or Pregnant Madonna) is 15 minutes away in Monterchi and his Resurrection & Misericordia frescoes in Sansepolcro are 45 minutes away. Others are nearby in Arezzo (The Story of the True Cross), Perugia (Altarpiece) and Urbino (the Flagellation).

Assisi (Giotto ++), Gubbio, Spello (Pinturicchio not to be missed), Perugia (Perugino's work in the Nobile Collegio di Cambio & Umbrian National Gallery) and Cortona (great Fra Angelico) are all within a one-hour drive.

Nearby Citerna has a terracotta sculpture by Donatello (Madonna & Child), a lost work only rediscovered in 2004.

Day trips can be made to Florence, Assisi, Siena, Ravenna, Urbino, Perugia, Cortona, Todi, Bevagna, Spoleto, Montefalco, Orvieto, Spoleto and Caprese Michelangelo to visit Michelangelo's birthplace and museum. All these places are a delight to the eye and to the senses - and all the towns are quite different one from another.

For modern art lovers there is the world renowned Burri Collection. Part is in a palazzo in Città di Castello, the other, more dramatic, part is in the outskirts in an amazing old tobacco drying factory - it's worth a visit even if you are not an art lover! There are many concerts, festivals and other events in the Spring and Summer.