Archive for 'Central Italy'

Alternately called the “most beautiful garden in the world”, the “most romantic garden in the world”, enchanted and home to fairies, the Garden of Ninfa, just outside Rome is a spectacularly beautiful park. The garden includes the remains of the ancient city of Ninfa and is known mostly to garden enthusiasts. A bit of a well-kept secret, it is still visited by over 60,000 people a year and is well worth stopping by if you get a chance. Everywhere you turn, you'll be met by picturesque vistas straight out of paintings or storybooks. Find a holiday rental in Rome and you could spend a day getting lost in your own little world and strolling through the gardens.

St Patrick conjures images of Ireland to mind, not Italy. However, a particularly fascinating monument in Orvieto, Umbria has the British saint's name attached to it. St Patrick's Well, originally called The Fortress Well – which would be a far more suitable title to use – is an exceptionally deep well which was built to provide water to Orvieto during times of siege.

Built on the edge of a cliff in the early 1500s and a masterpiece of hydraulic engineering, it is now a popular tourist site.

The structure is so ingrained into Italian mindsets that to call someone generous you can say that they have pockets as deep as St Patrick's Well. If you want to see this astounding and iconic structure for yourself, find a luxury villa in Umbria and make the descent into the depths of the earth.

The Temple of Valadier doesn't look real. It looks, instead, like something from a fantasy novel. Perched just inside the Frassassi mountain caves in Genga, Le Marche with views across an amazing landscape, it seems like a mythical temple or the home of some magical creature.

In reality, it is a neoclassical church which was built in 1828 for Pope Leone XII, who was from the area. The church is set inside the equally fantastical Frassassi cave system. With its crags, stalagmites and stalactites, it has a theatrical and breath-taking appearance.

These caves, too, can be visited and explored. If you are in search of beauty and magnificence that seems utterly other-worldly, find a holiday rental in Le Marche and spend a day exploring this special place.

Panicale is a beautiful comune in Umbria which has been voted “uno dei borghi piu belli d'Italia” (one of the most beautiful villages in Italy) and has been awarded an “orange flag”, seal of tourism and environmental quality. A medieval hilltown, it is unbelievably quaint with surviving city walls and gates and particularly picturesque due to its location, set between Lake Trasimeno and Nestore Valley. It offers unbelievable views, historic attractions and some serious hospitality. If you're looking for a quiet corner of the world to explore at leisure, then this might be just the thing. Find a luxury villa in Umbria and spend a few days seeing what Panicale has to offer.

The Villa Aldobrandini is a villa in Frascati, a town in the province of Rome. The original villa on the site was built by Alessandro Rufini in 1550. In 1598, it was given by Pope Clement VIII to his nephew, Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, from whom the villa takes its name. It is the only papal villa which is not owned by the state and is, instead, still owned and occupied by members of the Aldobrandini family, though its gardens are (luckily) open to the public on a daily basis.

Find a villa with pool in the Latium region and you could spend a day wandering these historic and famous gardens which are considered the best of early Italian Baroque style.