Infiorata, Spello, Umbria - 9/10 June 2012

The Infiorata in Spello takes place each year to celebrate Corpus Domini, the religious ceremony (in the catholic calendar) that sees the consecrated host being processed through the streets of this stunningly ancient town, complete with Etruscan arches and Roman remains.

Dating back over a hundred years, the laying of flower petals on the streets in front of the procession was started by an elderly Spellana, who scattered broom, the beautiful, fragrant, bright yellow spring flower, in front of her house as the procession passed by.

Since then, the annual celebration has taken on new dimensions and now the streets are covered with beautiful designs and pictures made entirely from flower petals and seed pods.

The whole town is involved and there are prizes awarded for the best designs in various categories including Under 14's, Tapetti (rugs) and Quadri (pictures covering piazzas or large streets).  Even the children join with work starting on the Saturday lasting all night and finishing with final touches early on the Sunday morning before the procession starts.

It's an incredible sight and recommended to anyone visiting Umbria at this time.  The apartment at Villa Bastiola is within an easy drive of Spello making it a great day out for everyone.

Gubbio, Umbria - Festivals & Events

Festa dei Ceri - 15 May 2012

Gubbio, one of Umbria's most interesting medieval towns sees the race of the ancient "Ceri" (Candles) through the tiny cobbled streets and up the mountainside to the church at the top. There is a fabulous atmosphere and it's wonderful to see all generations join in the celebrations.  The Eugubines are called the "Matti d'Italia" and you can see why at this amazing festival!

Palio della Balestra - 29 May 2012

Dating back to medieval times, the town of Gubbio has always been in competition with the town of Sansepolcro, just over the border in Tuscany, to see who has the best crossbow archer. This "Palio" or competition is held between the two teams and a challenge match is held in Sansepolcro in September.

The famous sbandieratori are also present and a serious flag-throwing demonstration heralds the beginning of the competition.

Both these events take place within a fortnight at the end of May.  It's a great chance to visit Umbria and enjoy some of the rich culture of the area and join in the fun with the locals.

The apartment at Villa Bastiola is just 40 minutes away so it's perfect for a day trip.  There are some excellent restaurants and trattoria there too not to mention the incredible remains of a Roman ampitheatre.

Sagra della Castagna, Morra - 8/9 Ottobre 2011

Roasting Chestnuts

The Sagra della Castagna (Chestnut Fair) at Morra, is held every year at the beginning of October just as the chestnut season is starting.

Morra is a small but thriving village on the road from Città di Castello to Cortona (Tuscany).  The wooded hills in the area around Morra are full of chestnut trees and produce chestnuts that are highly valued for their quality.

Chestnut gathering is a really serious business!  At this time of the year, you will find the woods full of locals searching for the best chestnuts.  You can only harvest if you own the woods - don't think about scrumping someone elses'!! 

During the festival you can find out how widely chestnuts are used in Italian cuisine from simply roasted, to cakes and pastries, jams, marron glacè and even honey collected during the time when the chestnut trees are in flower.

It's a lovely event and there is usually traditional Italian music and dancing with a young group coming up from Lake Trasimeno to take part.

A really good way to pass a Sunday afternoon especially if the sun's out and the sky is blue.

The apartment at Villa Bastiola is just 10 minutes away from Morra, so makes a great base to visit this festival and the rest of the area.

Tripadvisor - Villa Bastiola listing

TripAdvisor - Villa Bastiola - luxury self catering apartment

For ages, I couldn't manage to get our apartment listed on TripAdvisor (apart from a tiny photo and two word listing with no link to our website!) as we didn't fit into their specific criteria for hotels and B&B (need to have more than one accommodation for rent for a free listing).  

Sure, you could pay for the listing but that kind or defeats the whole point of TripA which is supposed to be a neutral guest driven website with honest comments about accommodation.

Anyway, TripA have now linked up with FlipKey and although you have to pay (a very tiny amount) it means an automatic listing on TripA.  So here we are!  I'm really chuffed - lots of our past guests have already logged on and left really charming reviews about their holidays here.

Most of our guests leave feeling that they have become part of our family, or at least become good friends and that they have had an authentic and genuine Italian experience.  They still want to know what's happening in our lives and keep in touch on Facebook or Twitter.

I'm not a great fan of these social networks but for keeping in contact with our new friends, lots of whom are on the other side of the world (Australia and NZ), it's a wonderful thing.

We'd love you to come and experience Umbria - don't take my word for it, click on this link:

TripAdvisor - Villa Bastiola

and read what our guests say about their holidays here.

www.villabastiola.com

Tripadvisor Slideshow for Villa Bastiola

Welcome to the Villa Bastiola. by Sally Ann Marconi in Umbertide, Umbria. Brought to you by TripAdvisor Vacation Rentals, powered by TripWow!™

Coloriamo i cieli - Lake Trasimeno May 2011

Let's colour the skies! From 29 Apr to 2nd May the skies at Castiglione del Lago at Lake Trasimeno will be full of kites of more different shapes, sizes and colours than you can imagine!

“In the kite I have always seen freedom and joy, a message of peace carried on by a wind knowing no bounds”.

This sentence by Jane Parker is the “manifesto” of the Coloriamo i cieli founders. It still represents the meaning of this 20th edition of the festival, fusing the themes of peace and protection of the environment.

It's a great day out for all the family with bouncy castles and ball pits for kids and loads of stands selling the latest in kite flying gear plus lots of places to get a bit to eat (this is Italy after all!).

Check out the weblink for the latest news: Coloriamo i Cieli, Lake Trasimeno

For a place to stay: www.villabastiola.com

Why I love Umbria!

There are things that can always surprise you in life and one of the wonderful things about Umbria and Italy is the spontaneous, generous nature of the locals! Having lived previously in London where everyone very much keeps to their own business, here it can be a little overwhelming that all of your neighbours know what's happening in your life!

As I found out yesterday though, this can have it's advantages!

I have some friends over visiting for a week and we decided to pop out for a quick drink (and I promise, I only had a non-alcoholic one!) in the evening. Driving home up the hill my friends spotted a porcupine! If you've never seen one, they're actually pretty big and it's amazing to see them in real life. I rolled the car back down the hill to get a better look and ended up slipping off the road down into the ditch!!!!!!!!!

As usual when you really need a mobile there's no signal, so my friend set off up the hill to walk the 5 minutes to our house to get help. She gave me instructons to stay in the car, lock the doors and close the window. Laughing, I told her that this is Umbria and that within 2 minutes somebody would come by that I knew.

And that's exactly what happened! One of our neighbours drove up, stopped, assessed the situation, went home to get his Panda 4x4 and came back to help tow my car out the ditch. In the meantime, 2 other sets of neighbours went by, all stopped for a chat and a laugh at the crazy English woman who drove into a ditch to look at a porcupine, made sure I was OK and then went on their way.

Most embarrassing of all, the following morning I went down to the local florist to get a plant to say thank you and found that everyone in the shop already knew about the porcupine incident, thanks to the fact that the florist was one of my neighbours that saw the whole thing the previous night.

What a great end to what could have been a pretty difficult situation!

www.villabastiola.com come and have your own adventures!

Weekend in Umbria

We had some friends over visiting from the UK this weekend, so finally took some time out to do some sightseeing and remembered just what is so special about this part of Italy and Umbria. It's always interesting seeing it through the eyes of others, like seeing it for the first time again. We didn't do anything particularly special, but the whole area is just so beautiful that even driving around is a treat in itself.

First off, we went down to Perugia and parked so that we came up into the old medieval town centre which belonged to the Baglioni family. It was filled in and vaulted over in the Papal salt wars with the Rocca Paolina built on top just to remind the Perugians who was boss.

Painstakingly excavated you can now walk up through the old medieval streets, and into the houses and imagine just what it might have been like in those times. Strolling down the Corso Vannucci from the Brufani Hotel, the architecture changes from Rennaisance (the Rocca Paolina was destroyed in 1860 with the Perugians stating their claim to their own city) to 12century by the Fountain, the Town Hall, the National Museum of Art and Collegio del Cambio and is totally breathtaking. Great to see the locals buzzing around just doing their thing too!

We did a small round trip the following day to Cortona (OK, it's just over the border in Tuscany!) which although is very touristy, still has so much charm and history and incredible views. We had a wonderful lunch in FuFluns (very reasonable, home cooked Tuscan food with a twist) and then drove through beautiful countryside down to Lake Trasimeno for a stroll and an ice cream at Passignano.

It was very relaxed and lazy! There was so much more we could have stopped and investigated, like the Etruscan tombs just outside Cortona or the site of the incredible battle between Hannibal and the Romans at Tuoro (by the Lake).

My friends were overwhelmed by the beauty and living history of this part of Italy and, I have to say, I was too! Don't take my word for it though, come and see for yourself!

We have special discounts on our lovely self catering holiday apartment for bookings made by Easter 2011! Look at http://www.villabastiola.com/ for more details or email me at info@villabastiola.com.

Alistair Sawday's Special Places to Stay

The lovely self catering holiday apartment at Villa Bastiola has been chosen as a Special Place to Stay by Alistair Sawday!

We are over the moon about this as there is a very tough selection process to get through. First you have to submit on line with a detailed brief about what makes your holiday home so special.

Then they send an inspector to visit! We had our visit at the beginning of March, which isn't the best time of year as it can look quite bleak here, but luckily the inspector can see beyond the winter and imagine how it will be during the season for our guests!

The inspector then submits a report to head office who make the final decision on selection. We are just waiting to hear the details to set up our page on their website and from next year we will be in the new 2012 guide book for Italy!

PS The photo is of one of our early summer visitors! Can't wait to see them again!!!

Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy

Città di Castello's skyline is an iconic symbol of this lovely Umbrian market town with its charming historic medieval centre. Cobbled streets wind their way to the main square where there are restaurants, shops and cafès.

At dusk, the pedestrianised Corso (High Street) comes alive as the locals walk up and down for their daily passegiata, meeting friends and family. Famous artists Raffaello and Signorellil worked here and some of Raffaello's graffiti can still be seen on some of the towns palaces!

We had a small (tiny actually! - 36m2) apartment right in the centre of Castello where we lived for over a year and we thoroughly enjoyed being part of this busy town. Just a short drive from our villa (15 mins), we often go for aperitivo, meeting friends for dinner or for shopping. The indoor market has some fantastic produce too and we really like the market on Thursday and Saturday mornings.

The best thing about Castello is that it still feels very "Italian" - it's not commercialised for tourists. It's all about Italians living their lives and you can feel very much a part of this when you visit.

Want to know more? Email me, Sally Ann, at info@villabastiola.com .

Karen Brown Travel Guides

A Karen Brown
Reader Discovery
Property

We are delighted to have been selected for the Traveller's Recommendations section of the Karen Brown Travellers Online Guide. Thanks to a fantastic review by one of our guests last year, Karen Brown has accepted the application and the luxury self catering apartment at Villa Bastiola is part of this delightful guide.

The guide offers hand-picked accommodation world wide, accommodation that is slightly apart from the norm in its welcome, hospitality, quality and charm. No wonder we are so pleased to be a part of this!

If any past guests would like to post a review on the site, please click on the link above. You can also post your own photos too.

We look forward to welcoming you soon!

Sally Ann, Marco and Emma (www.villabastiola.com)

Holidays in Umbria, Italy

Looking for something a little different in your holiday in Italy? Our lovely self catering apartment in Umbria offers a little of all that is best in this stunning area of Italy...

...Beautifully furnished and comfortable accommodation, stunning views, outdoor dining area, olive groves, away from it all but close enough to make sightseeing easy, great restaurants, culture, music festivals...

You can see the mountains of Tuscany in the distance and gems like Cortona, Siena, Montepulciano and Firenze are within easy travelling distance. Highlights of Umbria include Perugia (home to Umbria Jazz and Eurochocolate!), Gubbio, Assisi, Spello, Spoleto, Orvieto, Città di Castello and Montone to name but a few, again all a short drive away from the aparment.

Write to us for more information, to enquire about availability and rates or to make a booking at info@villabastiola.com.

Luxury self catering apartment for rent, Umbria

We have been renting the beautiful self catering holiday apartment on the first floor of our 200 year old stone farmhouse for over four years now! It doesn't seem possible!

All of our guests have been truly lovely and we are still in touch with many of them, thanks to social network sites like twitter and facebook and of course, email.

We are looking forward to welcoming new visitors here this summer and renewing friendships with previous guests too.

The apartment is beautifully furnished - our beds have been voted the most comfortable in Italy!! - with two double bedrooms, both en-suite, a large living room (wi-fi internet free, Sky TV and a huge book library!) and a fully fitted kitchen. Guests are free to use the garden as their own, enjoy lazing days away looking at the amazing view over the mountains towards Tuscany from the sun terrace or in the shade of the olive grove.

We look forward to hearing from you soon! Email us now at info@villabastiola.com for availability and rates.