50th anniversary in Italy (September/2024). Want a base to travel from: Tuscany, umbria, central Italy.
Prefer agriturismo!
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8339 posts
Virtually every farm in Tuscany has rooms and apartments for rent as a secondary source of income. I'm talking hundreds and hundreds of properties.
The internet is a great place to look. Booking.com has many of them with pictures and reviews.
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
8002 posts
I presume you’ll have a car, if you’re planning on getting to places around central Italy. In early October 2021 we stayed at an agriturismo that absolutely does need a car - in the hills west of Spoleto, a wonderful hilltown worth a visit, and near several other Umbrian hill towns, including Assisi. At the Agriturismo Santa Caterina, Gaetano and Maria speak some English - theirs is better than my Italian! You could also hear cowbells from cattle that roamed a nearby peach orchard (or was it apricots, or apples?), but no city noise whatsoever. It’s rural enough that we had Maria fix our excellent breakfast and dinner every day and night, from what they produce on their farm. We weren’t going to have dinner in a town then try to make it back in the dark by car - especially if having wine with dinner.
It’s in/near a major wine region, and many nearby towns were full of floral displays, even in early October. They have competitions for the most-decorated houses, with winners putting plaques in the wall by their front door. This was convenient for getting around Umbria, but distances are great enough that one place for Umbria and Tuscany would be difficult. Get one “central” agriturismo for Umbria and another for Tuscany.
It was rainy some days in October, and pretty cold at times. Maybe September would still be warm. The huge, roaring fire in the restaurant, used for cooking done dishes, was helpful, as well as atmospheric. The swimming pool was shut down in October; if that’s important, see if they still have it open when you’ll be there. https://agrisantacaterina.it/ .
I do have another recommendation, except that it’s for far western Tuscany, and while it’s a fantastic base for the Etruscan Coast, it’s not the Best agriturismo if you want central.
Posted by
872 posts
Posted by
Chicago, IL, USA
488 posts
The correct site:
https://www.agriturismo.it/en/
Shop em all, book direct. Read reviews on there, or check out Trip Advisor.
Tuscany alone has 1,165 agriturismos. Umbria adds another 316. Marches adds another 177 and Emilia-Romagna adds 140 more.
Your definition of Central Italy may differ. Just looking at Tuscany, I can cut that number down to 756 by filtering for places that welcome credit cards. Trim down to 560 by limited to Half Pensionne or B&B.
They allow for what type of vacation you're on, and since it's your 50th anniversary (CONGRATS!!!!), I dialed for Honeymoon, which, with the credit cards, and inclusion of breakfast, got it down to 9. Here's the search:
That's just a cut I set up. The site has some great filter tools to help you find the right place, though I'm looking at the top option on that list, Rocca di Pierle, and WOWIE WOO WAH WAH WOW! I did the same search for E-R, and there was one, that I'd consider for our 20th anniversary third trip to Italy, in 2025.