Our next farm stay was in a beautiful area in Umbria, near Lago Trasimeno.
I had a fair amount of work to get done, so I stayed behind on some of the day trips while Scott and the kids went exploring.
This flip flop in roles has been one of the fun parts of our trip. Scott has the entire summer off work, so I’m often the one working while the three of them have summer adventures. It’s a good thing I love my job, or it would probably cause some problems!
Montepulciano, Italy
One of the day trips we went on together was to Montepulciano. This little town had as much character as the other Tuscan hill towns we went to in our previous farm stay. It’s also where we discovered the best gelato shop so far, called Salamoia Gelateria Naturale. We talked with the young man behind the counter and found out he’d just opened last year! Everything was incredibly tasty and you could tell it was made with high-quality ingredients and was authentic Italian gelato.
Castiglione del Lago, Italy
Scott made a surprising discovery near our agriturismo — a town called Castiglione del Lago. He explored for a few hours on his own one day and came back, insisting we all needed to go.
We went to the town on a Wednesday morning, and a market filled the walkway up the hill. There were booths with clothes, housewares, food — all sorts of things. I found my first outfit of the trip in the market — a loose tank top and breezy skirt. (It’s been way too hot to consider anything with sleeves. Or pants.😆)
Little shops lined the street, but there was one in particular that we loved. A woman sat behind the counter at her sewing machine, making all sorts of cute things — purses, headbands, 90’s hair scrunchies — basically, anything you could make with a sewing machine.
There were also the most amazing little paintings for sale. We bought these two little prints — one for each of the kids’ bedrooms back home.
Palazzo della Corgna
Castiglione del Lago was charming, but the best part was Palazzo della Corgna which overlooked the lake. We’ve gone to a few castles already (and we’ll see some pretty grand ones when we get to Germany in a few weeks!) but this one had a lot of fun details. Our favorite was this incredibly long passageway from the palace to the fortress for safe transport of the VIPs when the palace was under siege. Pretty cool stuff.
The Kind People in Umbria, Italy
When we arrived at our agriturismo, we were greeted by Petra — an incredibly kind woman from Germany who has lived in Italy for 35 years. She served as our translator and ensured we knew everything about our stay, including the event that would be held on the last night of our stay. More on that later…
Each morning, we were greeted by Rosita in the breakfast room. She spoke more English than I do Italian, but we still couldn’t go too deep in conversation without our trusty Google Translate.
But even with our language barrier, I could instantly tell that Rosita was incredibly kind. That’s one thing I love about traveling — realizing that there are so many ways to communicate beyond words. On our first morning, she made a list of places in Umbria that she said the typical tourist wouldn’t know about. Scott and the kids visited a few of them during their day trips.
The agriturismo was hosting an event on the last night of our stay and guests were invited to attend. I felt a little sheepish not knowing Italian (I talked about my guilt in this past post!), but we couldn’t pass up the chance to attend and I’m so glad we did.
The food was provided by the cutest food truck I’ve ever seen. It was run by three women and I was tickled to learn that the meal was served in courses — even from a food truck!
The charm of Italian culture was in full force as the evening went on and more guests arrived. By nine o’clock (two hours after the ‘start’ time), groups of people were just beginning their dinner as the Winters family was finishing up! 😆
Groups gathered at tables throughout the grass, among trees, and on a patio above. It felt like a true garden party and we were grateful to be a part of it — even if we didn’t speak their language! Next time we come to Italy, I’m determined to speak more Italiano!
My Morning Walks
Just as I did at our previous farm stay, I woke early each morning and took a walk in the countryside. It took me a few tries to find my favorite spot, but once I did, I was amazed by the early morning views once again.
We were glad to have spent twelve days at our amazing farm stays in Tuscany and Umbria. It felt great to slow down and recharge. But it was time to go to the next stop — onward!
Next Stop: Five nights and four full days in Florence.
This is part of a series about our Winters Family Summer Adventure through Italy and beyond. You can start from the beginning of the blog series here or follow along on Instagram.
