If you are planning a trip to Italy, you may be wondering where you should stay.  You may be thinking of the beauty of Tuscany and Umbria as many people do, but that is a pretty big area, so where? We have several reasons for choosing Soriano nel Cimino for the bulk of your trip:

1.Is this Tuscany? Umbria? Lazio?

A quick geography lesson... If you don't know, Tuscany, Umbria and Latium are regions, not provinces. They are larger areas than a province in Italy. To an American, it is like saying California, or to an Australian, it is like saying Queensland. So if you wanted to visit California, you might find yourself in cities like San Francisco or Los Angeles, in the Mojave Desert, in the Sequoia Forest, in Monterey, etc. etc. etc. The area is big and diverse.

However, most of us have a picture we have drawn in our head that represents the Tuscany and Umbria regions. We have seen it in the movies, in paintings, and in photos. You really get the fullness of that image in an area known as 'Tuscia', which was the home of the Ancient Etruscan civilization. Tuscia is an area that extends into Southern Tuscany, Southern Umbria and Northern Lazio. The rolling hills with valleys of vineyards, hazelnuts, olive trees and sunflowers. The villages peppered here and there atop hills with castles or cathedrals on top. You have the picture. Soriano is right at the center of Tuscia, at the border between Lazio and Umbria, just miles from the Tuscany border. Furthermore, Soriano is widely considered to be the most stunning town in the area.

2.Soriano delivers the Experience of a lifetime

Imagine leaving your medieval home and walking to a local vegetable stand in an Italian village with a shopping list in hand.  Then you stroll over to the local butcher and local grocery to pick up items alongside the local villagers.  You go home and open the recipe book left for you and begin to cook an authentic recipe that was handed down through the generations in this small village.  You then enjoy your meal while overlooking the rolling hills of the central Italian countryside.  No hotel will offer this!

Imagine leaving your home early in the morning and driving down Italian country roads, passing farms.  Then taking a short hike to a clearing where you explore ancient Etruscan cave dwellings and an Etruscan necropolis.  There are no ticket booths, no tour buses, no handrails for crowds of tourists.  Perhaps you stop to picnic in the ruins of a medieval castle.  No traditional tour will offer this!

You will sip local wine made by the people you see in town.  The olive oil comes from the trees you see just outside of town.  You may have a dish of pasta with Porcini mushrooms that were picked from the local forest that morning.  The milk in your cappuccino and the prosciutto you eat comes from the farms in the valley below. Everything is fresh.  Nothing is grown in a greenhouse, and there are no preservatives to be found.  The villagers know you are there and welcome you as their guest.  These are experiences you will never find in the city hotels.

There are no plastic Coliseum models.  No St. Peter’s snow globes.  Just the Real Italy.

When you leave Soriano, you will have tasted true Italian life in a way that most people never have a chance.  You will have had an experience that you will never forget, and we are certain you will intend to repeat.

3.Location! Location! Location!

Soriano is the perfect base from which to launch many day trips.  Staying in Rome is only good for seeing Rome.  Staying in Florence is only good for seeing Florence, etc.  Consider that just getting out of the major cities can take forever.  But Soriano is strategically located close to most of what you will want to see in Italy.  Soriano is only 15 minutes from a major train hub that will get you quickly to major destinations for day trips.  Here are some examples:

Orte Train Station to popular destinations:

Orvieto    24 minutes
Rome       36 minutes
Assisi     1 hour, 10 minutes
Perugia    1 hour, 30 minutes
Florence   1 hour, 57 minutes
Siena      2 hours, 15 minutes
Naples     2 hours, 45 minutes
Pompeii    3 hours, 27 minutes
  

 

Soriano to popular destinations by car (estimate)

Orvieto    30 minutes
Rome       50 minutes
Assisi     1 hour
Perugia    1 hour
Siena      1.5 hours
Florence   2 hours
Naples     2.5 hours
Pompeii    2.75 hours

 

4.You can drive there

Italian cities are well known for crazy drivers, chaos, one-way streets, terrible parking, large areas closed to traffic (usually the places tourists want to go), and seemingly random changes in traffic rules at various times of day and on various days.  Foreigners are generally warned not to attempt to drive in Italian cities, and for good reason.  To the contrary, the smaller towns are much more laid back and easy to drive in. The expressway system is excellent, and getting between cities is easy once you are outside them.  If you rent a car, Soriano is an easy place to drive, and you can easily drive to any destination. Furthermore, it is only 1 hour and 15 minutes from the airport in Rome. If you want to go to Rome, you can drive to the outskirts, then take advantage of Rome’s excellent subway system or taxis without the worry of driving inside the city.  Or better yet, simply drive to the Orte train station and take the quick 36 minute train ride into Central Rome.

5.It is away from the tourist traps

When you stay in a tourist-infected place like Rome or Florence, you get the worst of just about everything.  The food is overpriced and low quality, you are surrounded by other tourists, the stores regularly price gouge, there is a frenetic pace about everything, it is dirty, and it gives you little sense of the real Italy.  Soriano is calm and beautiful.  When you eat in a restaurant, you will be eating where the locals eat…  excellent, high quality food like you have never had before.  They don’t gouge you.  More likely, they will give you a discount.  The stores sell products at the same prices they sell to the locals, since 99% of their business is from locals.  You will run into very few tourists, and the ones you find are there for the same reason you are.

6.Hospitality

The Sorianese are extremely warm and friendly people.  When they see you, they don’t see dollar signs.  Instead, they see a guest who they welcome into their village.  They are incredibly proud of their town and its surrounding areas, and want to share that pride with you.  If you spend a week in Soriano, you will most likely leave having first-name relationships with many new people.

7.Affordability

Just about everything is cheaper and better than in the standard tourist areas.  Lodging, restaurants, bars, laundry, stores, etc.  You will spend far less on one of our homes, yet you will get much better than just about any hotel.  You will spend less in restaurants, and get the finest Italian meals instead of ‘tourist trap fare’.

In other words, you are treated as family, not a tourist.

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