Two years ago Cassie and I joined W.W.O.O.F.-ERS (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) and hooked up with a lovely lady in Umbria on her smallholding consisting of fruit and olive trees, 9 chickens, 7 cats and an old dog called Max. We spent two weeks at Heidi's farm, called Paradiso Integrale. It's in Umbria, just an hour from Roma and the airport, and overlooks a huge, beautiful valley, through which the river Tiber flows. We would sit with a Limoncello and watch the sun set over medieval castles, snowcapped mounts and olive groves. Really, really hard to take.
We used her farm as a base from which to tour, thus avoiding all the hassles of nightly accomodation-finding. The gorgeous Orvieto, Marlena Di Blasi's home is just up the Autostrada, the local village, Otricoli, is an unspoilt medieval style village. As you walk the streets you can spot pieces of Roman carving on the stones used to built the walls of the houses. Its history goes all the way back to Etruscan times.
St. Francis' Assisi is about an hour away...You can even drive down to the terminus of the treno rapido a Roma - the fast urban train that will drop you into the centro of Bella Roma.
We used her farm as a base from which to tour, thus avoiding all the hassles of nightly accomodation-finding. The gorgeous Orvieto, Marlena Di Blasi's home is just up the Autostrada, the local village, Otricoli, is an unspoilt medieval style village. As you walk the streets you can spot pieces of Roman carving on the stones used to built the walls of the houses. Its history goes all the way back to Etruscan times.
St. Francis' Assisi is about an hour away...You can even drive down to the terminus of the treno rapido a Roma - the fast urban train that will drop you into the centro of Bella Roma.
We are returning to Paradiso Integrale on the 19th of next month (May).
Heidi runs her property as an Agriturismo, meaning she has accomodation, but frankly, she's not a business tyro - more the creative type of person.. so we'll be helping her out with a better website and more. She speaks good English, German and Italian, knows Roma and the area around her farm like the back of her hand, so she's a very handy person to know when finding your way around.
I should also mention that Heidi is an internationally known voice therapist and teaches many budding singers to overcome their blockages.
Heidi runs her property as an Agriturismo, meaning she has accomodation, but frankly, she's not a business tyro - more the creative type of person.. so we'll be helping her out with a better website and more. She speaks good English, German and Italian, knows Roma and the area around her farm like the back of her hand, so she's a very handy person to know when finding your way around.
I should also mention that Heidi is an internationally known voice therapist and teaches many budding singers to overcome their blockages.
Here's her website. If you use Google Chrome you can translate it easily.
..and here's Max: 'Il Vecchio Cane' (the old dog), starring in a little video we did last time we visited. Gives you a good idea of the place and its serenity.
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..and here's Max: 'Il Vecchio Cane' (the old dog), starring in a little video we did last time we visited. Gives you a good idea of the place and its serenity.
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