I make no apologies for this being a blatant plug. Hold on, hold on, don’t stop reading, you’ll like this. My wife Luciana is Italian, and I have a large extended Italian family of in-laws. Most are in the UK, but several have returned to the “old country”. They’re barking mad, but I love them all. Three years ago, two of my brothers-in-law, Mario and Joe, sold everything they owned, to buy a 200 year old derelict country palazzo, in a hilltop village, which hadn’t been lived in for over 25 years.
Located in a tiny village called Lugnano, slap bang in the very centre of the spectacular Umbrian countryside, it is truly idyllic. In fact it couldn’t be more central, positioned, as it is, almost exactly between Florence, San Marino, Arezzo, Siena and Perugia, and equidistant from both coasts. Formerly the chef in the famous King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow, Mario had been renovating Victorian properties for years, but this was a monumental project. Previously a Director of Virgin Megastores, Joe was thrown in at the deep end, literally.
I could go on (and on), but I’ll cut the pitch short. The renovation has been a phenomenal success. This uniquely unusual building has returned to being the grandest building in town, with stupendous views over the Tiber valley. With its own chapel, grotto, folly, and endless tropical gardens this was an enormous undertaking. Mario and Joe (Majo – I know) decided from the very beginning that the scale of the building, and immense size of the rooms lent themselves to a “boutique hotel style” fit out. Each room has hard-wired and wireless internet, large plasma TV’s, DVD players, and the frankly enormous bathrooms include wet room space, Philippe Stark fittings and pedestal baths. This is luxury that doesn’t intimidate. This is luxury you can wallow in.
Last year the Palazzo was very busy with bookings for weddings, and whole extended families and groups, taking either the whole building for weeks, or individual rooms for long weekends. It turns out that Ryanair fly direct from Stansted Airport to Perugia, which is only 25 minutes away. This means a long weekend in the Umbrian sunshine is far easier and cheaper than you would imagine.
Right, I’ll say no more, apart from this. Checkout the website, and when you make a booking, tell them I sent you for a “mates-rates” discount.
TEL: 0039 331 8843161
EMAIL: info@palazzomajo.com
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/PalazzoMajo
LOCATION: Lugnano, Umbria, 06018
