Archive for 'Central Italy'

What a colourful festival indeed!! The annual kite festival in Gubbio in Umbria is being held in the Teatro Romano park on the weekend of the 24th and 25th of March 2012.

It is an event for the entire family to enjoy as not only can you see some of the most spectacular kites being flown, but there are also games organised for both children and adults, and kite making workshops to show how to build your very own kite!

There are many possibilities of sightseeing in this area also, so why not rent one of our fabulous holiday villas here in central Italy and have a look at some of the fantastic tourist attractions as well as this wonderful festival.

You can even let the kids make their own kite that they could fly at the villa while you relax!

Stray cats in Rome, they're famous !

The Roman cats have always found shelter amongst the ancient ruins in the city. The numerous postcards of cats sitting on stumps of old Roman columns, cat sleeping on the foot of an emperor's statue, or just lounging near the Colosseum testify to the deep rooted image cats have in Rome.

Many of these stray cats have found shelter in Torre Argentina (it was here in Torre Argentina that the famous Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was stabbed by his rival Brutus, in 44BC).

Torre Argentina is now home to about 250 feline friends, sheltered amongst the oldest temples in Rome (400-300 BC). Seven days a week volunteers from different countries, feed, clean and look after them.

Visitors are always welcome to look around; visit the cats and browse around the cat shelter. It's open every day from noon to 6 pm.

Now the Roman cats even have their own website !

Here we are again with another Villa Spotlight! Each week we provide our readers with a special look at one of our personal favorite villas. This week we take another look at Umbria, neighbor to Tuscany and a great place to stay during your vacation to Italy! The Villa Uccellaia is an amazing property, but if it does not fit your group's size or needs we have a wide selection of other villas in Umbria to choose from!

The Villa Uccellaia is a charming fourteenth century stone farmhouse that is situated on a four hectare farm estate, with the much of the grounds dedicated to plants, olive trees and orchards.

Every week we search through our catalog of thousands of villas in Italy, and pick out one to shine our Villa Spotlight on.  This week we look towards Umbria, often overlooked under Tuscany's tall shadow for tourists, but is an amazing place to stay during your vacation to Italy.  Whether you visit the well preserved medieval hill town of Perugia, or just traipse through the countryside to see the castles and fortresses that dot the land in varying amounts of disrepair, or if you come for the food you will be sure enjoy your villa rental in Umbria!

The villa we look at today is know as Villa Lido, an ancient villa that was constructed in the 16th century and has been lovingly restored a mere ten years ago to its current state.

Welcome back to another Villa Spotlight, in which we search through our thousands of villas available and pick one to highlight for our readers. Today we look at Tuscany, near Lucca, in the town of Santa Maria Albiano at the villa La Sorgente.

Lucca is a well known tourist city with a rarity in Italy, complete and intact medieval city walls! And these are no ordinary city walls, they have been redesigned as an attraction all to itself with parks along the top so you can stroll or take a bike ride around the city from atop the walls that used to protect it from invading armies.

Lucca has much more than city walls for you to discover during your vacation, but if you want to spread your time around it is also located where you can visit many other cities and towns around the area easily.