Between Monterchi in Tuscany and Monte Santa Maria Tiberina in Umbria
Nearest Airport: Perugia, 50 kilometres
See Airport Driving Times
Nearest Trains: Arezzo, 49 kilometres
Nearest Motorway: E45 at Città di Castello
Car: Required
This virtually unspoiled part of Umbria has far fewer tourists than the well known areas of Tuscany.
Situated between two delightful old market towns; Città di Castello (15 mins) and Sansepolcro (20 mins), you have the choice of turning one way or the other at the end of the drive to go shopping. Both have a tantalising ‘corso’ (high street) full of every kind of shop. Banks are in ample supply. Markets are held once a week in the old centres.
There is a fantastic selection of restaurants all around, often with ‘al fresco’ eating and offering a delicious array of local cuisine. If it is art you are after and cultural interests in general, then all the Umbrian Renaissance painters will blow you away; Signorelli, Perugino, Pinturicchio and right on your door step here in Monterchi is Piero della Francesca’s breathtaking fresco of La Madonna del Parto, a rare painting of the Madonna with child.
Through out the summer months you can find open air music festivals, concerts and operas; jazz, rock and classical. Top of the list is the ‘Umbria Jazz Festival’ festival in the medieval centre of Perugia.
This sizzling venue attracts artists from the United States to come and perform. A film festival is held in Umbertide each summer which always draws a crowd of film buffs. The famous festival of Spoleto is within easy reach.
In every village and town, during the summer, you will see posters advertising festas and sagras where local communities show off a particular gastronomic speciality including roasted wildboar, truffle pasta, wild porcini mushrooms, marinated goat or just expertly made polenta with a melt in the mouth meat ragu!
People buy their ticket, sit on a bench at a paper covered table where large bottles of wine are waiting to be poured. Your food arrives shortly and the revelry begins.
The countryside is spectacularly beautiful. Walk out of the door and just keep going through woods and country lanes past vineyards and olive groves all the time focusing on vistas of Italian beauty. Very little traffic comes through this exquisite valley. The air is as fresh as you can find it. An altogether stimulating and at the same time relaxing place in which to chill out and unwind.