Borgo Struginati

We toured southern Umbria in September this year but we stayed in a central location, down in the south and visited places on day trips in a hired car. We booked through Booking.com and took former Borgo Struginati guests recommendations into account in our decision. Borgo Struginati is an agriturismo experience. A small farm, in a small natural dip in the land - whichever way you arrive, you drive down a hill to get there. There was plenty of parking space at the end of two alternate loose gravel tracks. Borgo Struginati is a very quiet and peaceful place, quite lovely and definitely rustic. The owners do not speak English but their son, Leonardo, who was there for some of the time each day spoke English well enough. They have Wi-Fi internet but it was a bit hit and miss: a new router with a more powerful Wi-Fi transceiver would resolve this (trust me I’m an IT Consultant). The farm grows vines from which they produce their own blended wine (both red and white), plus olive trees from which they produce their own olive oil. There are also some crops, fruit and vegetables all grown in quite small quantities. There are a few chickens as well, plus pigs and bees (thankfully the latter two were located well away from the main farm area). The accommodation is provided by a small number of converted self-contained rooms in the main building plus three converted/rebuilt out-buildings. The finish everywhere is traditional and is first-rate, but it is basic (with no easy chairs or TV), but that is exactly what we wanted. Our accommodation was in the largest of the three single-storey out-buildings and (for the two of us) a generous kitchen / diner / living area with a kitchen sink, gas hob, fridge, sufficient crockery / cutlery / glassware / cooking implements / towels etc. to allow us to self-cater. There was one bedroom with both a double and a single bed plus a wardrobe and two bedside tables. A small WC / shower room sat between these two main rooms. The shower was more than adequate with plenty of hot water and clean towels. In the heat of the day the inside of our accommodation was cool, and closing the shutters at night provided absolute darkness. There was central heating and on the last two nights of our holiday, with the evening temperature having dropped, we were glad of it. There was a place to sit just outside of the entrance - a small table with two chairs shaded by a tree. There was a lovely swimming pool and area about 150 metres walk, which we went to inspect. We are not ‘pool people’ but we recognize that some of their guests, in the height of the summer heat, would have enjoyed using it. That was it, nothing more. It was however more than sufficient, and no more than we wanted or expected. It was very clean, and the hosts were keen to welcome us with two bottles of their own wine. The rooms were cleaned and the bed made every day, with sheets that were regularly changed. The bed was really comfortable and there were sufficient pillows. We were provided with ingredients for our breakfast every day - sometimes fresh eggs, sometimes bread and various fruits and tomatoes, all very good … oh and occasionally a home-baked sweet apple or sponge cake. The coffee maker made excellent coffee on the hob and milk, butter, sugar and also tea bags were provided. There were several domesticated animals around - various cats and two dogs. Whisky belonged to a neighbour and Spritz who belonged to the farm. Spritz was a quite large and energetic, a young dog with a mass of white fur. He amused us with his antics when Leonardo decided he needed to be locked up in his paddock for the night or because he had misbehaved. Our plan was always to return to the farm in the afternoon or early evening having complete our day trips. Mostly we followed our plan to eat our main meal of the day at lunchtime and then self-cater in the evening and get into some glasses of wine. We rarely did anything too adventurous when we self-catered. We found good cold meat salamis, cured meats, and cured wild boar sausages and the like in various delicatessen establishments, bread and salad from a local supermarket, and wine from the farm or bought when out on our trips. We were on the first day invited to help ourselves to fresh tomatoes from the vines that bordered our outside seating area. They were small and sweet and with the farm’s olive oil plus fresh herbs these salads were wonderful and it kept costs down. We enjoyed our evenings very much and having this relaxation time (and wine) we were often sleeping for 10-12 hours. The nearest centre is a small village called Doglio (pronounced Dow-lio). It boasts two bars (both also selling a small range of groceries and wine etc.). The village was pretty but again fairly quiet, we did pop down a couple of times and have a wine at one of the bars: but the wine was too sweet for our palate. The nearest big centre is Todi - one of our most favourite places that we visited on our holiday. It was a lovely holiday in a lovely place. The people we met we liked very much and we find it difficult to find any fault in our chosen accommodation.