Umbria is a well known area for the quality of its Umbria villas. A typical Umbrian holiday villa with swimming pool will also represent good value, but nevertheless be close to many points of interest and places to see. A selection from the Dolce Vita Villas collection of luxury Umbria house will provide you with a home from home in the green heart of Italy with Umbria farmhouses and Umbria villas with pool. The area is also well considered from a gastronomic point of view, with hams, cheeses and white wines being its particular forte. Staying at a luxury Lazio villa of ours gives you a chance to explore the delights of a region every bit as interesting and picturesque as Tuscany, but with the added bonus of being very close to Rome. Rural and rustic pleasures abound, and all you have to do to enjoy them is to take a Lazio house with swimming pool from the Dolce Vita Villas collection.
Assisi may not be the capital of Umbria, but it is its spiritual heart. That much is clear from the re-birth of its World Heritage site, the Basilica of St Francis, after its disastrous collapse in 1997. The faithful reopened the basilica within two years, a miraculously short time, and it is now again what is has been since St Francis founded it nearly 9 centuries ago. A place of pilgrimage for Italy's patron saint, and a place of great beauty and immense cultural importance. It must be high on the list of places to go for every visitor who takes an Umbria villa rental, the best means of seeing such places as Spoleto, Gubbio, Orvieto and Todi. The distances are short, through green countryside, and each is a jewel of its kind. Take Orvieto, for example, where the Signorelli frescoes in the Duomo give a chilling view of the Last Judgement - escape quickly to the comfort of one of our Umbria villas. As for Spoleto, its annual summer festival of music, theatre and dance is amongst the most important cultural events to take place in Italy, and has even given birth to a parallel festival held every year in Charleston, South Carolina. Todi has been voted the world's most liveable city, perching as it does on the banks of the upper Tiber with all-round views over lush Umbrian countryside. The city is just an overall picture of perfection, and no wonder its streets and squares are so often used in films. Gubbio's “palio” or race (without the horses seen in the Siena version) is amongst the best known people's pageants in the country, and of modern invention is the Umbria Jazz Festival which takes place in Perugia. Ten days of practically uninterrupted jazz - you'll need a rest at a beautiful villa in Umbria. While staying at your Umbria villa, you'll need to relax, and why not with a sample of the new style wines made locally to go with the local produce, charcuterie and breads which abound in village markets. The highest appellation is reserved for Torgiano Rosso Riserva from the Torgiano estate south of Perugia, but there are plenty of DOCs produced locally and based on the Sangiovese, Canaiolo and Trebbiano grapes as well as the more famous Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay varieties.
