La Casa Piccola

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Villa |3 bedrooms |Sleeps 5

Armenzano in Assisi

From £450 per week |  From £75 per night

4 nights minimum stay

Changeover flexible

Be the first to write a review

Key info  Car advised, private garden, no pets allowed

About the home

Umbria is known as "the green heart of Italy" and at La Casa Piccola you will have the perfect opportunity to experience its beauty. Set on the wooded lower slopes of the Mt Subasio regional park, the house's peaceful surroundings make it ideal for a relaxing holiday. Yet it is only 7 kilometres from ancient, pink-stoned Assisi. With beautiful views over vineyards, olive groves and green valleys, the house provides the perfect opportunity enjoy the delights of the Italian countryside while still being in easy reach of the wonderful restaurants, markets, fashion shops and art-filled historic hill-towns of unspoiled Umbria. La Casa Piccola has three bedrooms sleeping five people and is fully equipped with every comfort. If you are looking for a holiday where you can relax in the garden some days and go out exploring, shopping or eating well on others, La Casa Piccola can be recommended.

Sit and read under the pergola in the delightful garden, to the background buzz of crickets and birdsong or go walking on the well-marked tracks that criss-cross the mountain itself, where you will rarely sight another walker. You may even see some of the wildlife like badgers, deer or porcupine that make their homes in the woods. The villa is part of a tiny hamlet of houses where the friendly Italian neighbours will make you feel welcome.

Facilities

Further details indoors:
The white-tiled bathroom has a shower unit with door, a handbasin, toilet and bidet. All towels and linen are provided.
All bedrooms are equipped with bedside tables, bedside lights, wardrobe and chest of drawers. The house is recommended for five persons, however the single sofa bed located on an inner balcony floor, usually used as a studio, can accommodate a sixth person. A child's cot can be made available if required. The house has a Wi Fi connection for your laptop computer.
The washing machine is shared with the owner and located in a separate utility room. The rotary clothesline in a corner of the garden is also shared with the owner, when in residence. The garden is otherwise solely for the use of guests. The floors throughout the house are tiled with the exception of the inner balcony room, which has a wood floor. The walls are white and hung with attractive art works. There is a good stock of books in the house as well as CDs, DVDs and videos. There is Sky television. The living room looks out over the garden and the kitchen window looks out over the wooded valley behind the house.

Further details outdoors:
The garden, with its roses as well as fig, olive, walnut, lilac and bay trees, looks out on the surrounding wooded slopes, farms and valleys. Potted geraniums and other plants give a colourful display. Garden table and chairs, shaded by a vine-covered pergola, are provided and barbecue equipment is supplied. The pergola is ideal for sitting out and eating on a warm summer's evening. Off-road hard-standing parking space is provided. The garden is for sole use of the holiday-makers, although the clothes line is shared with the owners.

Further details

All rooms have heaters and there are electric blankets on all beds for the cooler months. Windows have fly screens. May not be suitable for very young children (toddlers) or the disabled as there are stairs between living room floor and ground floor and also between living room and inner balcony room. Otherwise, children are welcome. Babies are also welcome and there is a cot available. House cleaning and changing of bed linen and towels is carried out weekly.

Conditions

The owners of La Casa Piccola are sometimes in residence next door and can provide helpful information about the local area, restaurants, shopping, markets etc etc, if required. Guests are asked to sign a booking agreement. A charge of £40 for each booking is made to cover laundering of bed linen, towels etc and cost of house cleaning. A deposit of 25% is required at the time of booking with the deposit due two months before arrival. Late bookings (within two months of the start of your holiday) must be paid in full at the time of booking. If you have to cancel less than three months before the start of your holiday your deposit will be forfeited. For a cancellation between three months and two months of the start of your holiday 50% of the total cost of the accommodation is due. If cancelled within two months of your arrival date then the total cost of the accommodation is forfeited. In the unlikely event that we have to cancel your holiday due to circumstances beyond our control, we will promptly refund to you all the money you have paid to us. Your arrival time is from 14:00 on unless otherwise arranged with the owner. On your departure we ask that the house is vacated by 10:00am, unless otherwise arranged with the owner. The rental sum covers your use of the property and services as described on this website. The prices quoted are the weekly rates for the number of stated beds in the accommodation. You must not exceed this number without permission from the owner. A baby in a cot does not count when calculating maximum occupancy. The booking conditions apply even if for some reason the booking form has not been completed e.g. a late booking by telephone. Many thanks.

Photos

 

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Front of the house

 

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Garden and pergola

 

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Sitting Room

 

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Bedroom 1

The Umbria region

Umbria is known as 'the green heart of Italy' because it manages to be lush and green even in the middle of the hottest of summers. Its wooded slopes and valleys and its mediaeval hilltop towns of pinkish-grey stone boasting churches and museums full of art works, add to its gentle beauty. Its people manage thoroughly modern lives while preserving the best of their ancient traditions.

Perhaps the most famous Umbrian of all is St Francis, known as the Little Poor One, and now patron saint both of Italy and of the international ecological movement. Many believe his presence can still be felt in the serene atmosphere of the streets and squares of his birthplace Assisi. Those who wish can visit the many sites associated with this gentle 12-century saint and even see the tree where he is said to have talked to the birds.

Umbrians love their food, drizzling their own home-produced olive oil -- among the best in Italy -- over chunks of toasted bread, grilling their meat over wood fires, slicing truffles over their pasta, savouring their red and white wines grown from grapes ripened on hillside vineyards. You can enjoy their regional specialities in local restaurants where you will be made most welcome -- or you can join in at a summer festa in any one of dozens of small villages, where the food is local, the atmosphere lively and to which everyone is invited.

Go anywhere in Umbria and you will be surrounded by beautiful countryside with views that take in olive groves, vineyards, lakes, rivers and mountains. On Lake Trasimeno at Umbria's heart, there are beaches with pedaloes and ferries to the islands in its centre. In towns like Perugia, Spoleto, Gubbio, Assisi, Todi, with their lively bars and restaurants, the history might be pre-Etruscan but the fashions in the boutiques or gracing the local women -- and the men, for that matter -- will be the very latest. Yet you will also find villages and farms where the old ways and the old styles are still upheld.

Every summer, the Umbria Jazz festival and the Trasimeno Blues Festival attract many top musicians but there are also many classical performances to be found throughout the area. Dominating central Umbria is Mount Subasio, a regional park , and it is here you will find La Casa Piccola, right at the heart of all that is best in ancient Umbria.

The Assisi / Armenzano area

Only seven kilometres from La Casa Piccola is historic Assisi, one of the most beautiful towns in Italy with its magnificent 12thc. basilica housing frescos by Giotto. As well, there are the various sites associated with St Francis and St Clare to explore, including the humble monks' cells in the woods on Mt Subasio where Francis spent much of his time and the beautiful convent of St Damiano founded by Clare. Nearby Santa Maria degli Angeli, down on the plain in front of Assisi, has its own magnificent basilica devoted to the little chapel restored by St. Francis.

In Assisi you can wander through the ancient streets, past pink-stoned houses with their overflowing window boxes full of colourful geraniums and petunias, choose from a dozen or more flavours of ice cream at one of the bars or sit at a table in the square to drink coffee and watch the passing parade. You can visit the many fascinating museums and art galleries or simply soak up the atmosphere in this beautiful Umbrian city, the spiritual heart of Italy. As well as small supermarkets and gift shops, restaurants serving dishes at reasonable prices abound. Assisi and nearby Spello both have attractive town swimming pools. In early May Assisi holds the Calendimaggio, a mediaeval celebration with songs, dances, flag-tossing and drumming as well as torchlit processions with beautiful costumes. In August the week-long 'palio' of San Rufino is held in the town, with a mediaeval market and displays and processions. In fact, hardly a summer's day goes past without some form of entertainment in the main piazza, to be enjoyed in the warmth of the evening.

Even closer to La Casa Piccola is the mediaeval walled village of Armenzano, a fascinating example of the way people of the past often lived in hill towns fortified against outsiders. Both Assisi and Armenzano are on the slopes of Mt Subasio whose woods and untouched spaces have been preserved unspoilt since the area was declared a regional park. The mountain, which dominates the local area, is criss-crossed by trails and walks where there is seldom another soul to be seen. The woods are home to creatures like deer, porcupine, hares, pine martens and birds. Some visitors have even spotted the wild boar who still roam these peaceful forests, usually staying well away from human beings. The more adventurous visitors can go hang-gliding from close to the summit of 1,200-metre Mt Subasio or go pony-trekking on the lower slopes. For many, however, the peaceful atmosphere of sitting in the garden at La Casa Piccola, enjoying a glass of wine and reading a book while the cicadas chirrup and the birds sing, is activity enough.

As for other towns within easy reach, Perugia, the regional capital and a university town renowned for its fashion boutiques, Spello, Spoleto, Montefalco, Gubbio, Arezzo, Corciano, Siena and Orvieto are recommended. Here you will find churches, museums and galleries filled with art works by Il Perugino, Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Caravaggio and others. There are the remains of a Roman town at Carsulae, the site near Lake Trasimeno where Hannibal and his Carthaginian army defeated that of Rome, palaces with interiors virtually untouched for hundreds of years. The beauty of Umbria is breath-taking.

How to get there

La Casa Piccola What's nearby: Attractions Restaurants Click map icons for more information

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From the UK, the closest airport to Assisi is Perugia (St Egidio), which is 30 minutes by car from the house. Ryanair flies to this airport from Stansted 5-6 times a week. The main car hire firms represented here are Avis, Hertz, Maggiore, Europcar, Easy Car and Budget. It is also possible to fly to Rome, Pisa or Ancona with both Ryanair and EasyJet. Each of these airports is approximately three hours drive from the house.

There's also a regular train service from Rome to Assisi, from where it's possible to take a taxi to the house. Some visitors like to fly to Rome, then take the train to Peurgia station (rather than Assisi), where the main car hire firms are represented. Some visitors also like to drive down from the UK (a journey of two days) and the owners can advise on the best route. It is recommended that visitors to La Casa Piccola have a car in order to go shopping and sightseeing as transport in the area of the house is limited.

Activities near Assisi

Guestbook for La Casa Piccola

"Lovely, lovely and most lovely! Thank you for your 'gentile' hospitality. May we meet again!" The Barbours, Spokane, WA, USA. July, 2011.

"Your garden is gorgeous and a place we could sit for hours. La Casa Piccola will be a part of our memories of Umbria," Karen, Nic, Marnie Sarah, Michael and baby Alexander, Australia. August, 2011.

"The tranquility and the views are simply wonderful. Our visit to Assisi has been made perfect by the location and accommodation of La Casa Piccola." Ray, Brenda and Dominic Abbott, Darlington, UK, April, 2011.

"We have had a wonderful week in Umbria. The care that has gone into equipping and furnishing La Casa Piccola is striking." John, Encarna, Juan and Alejandro Blick, Northampton, April, 2011.

"We had a quiet and peaceful holiday just as we wanted. The tour around Mt Subasio was delightful, especially as we saw so many wildflowers. Many, many thanks to Mary and Brian for their warm welcome and their hospitality." Bert and Marianne Stasse, Udenhout, Holland. May, 2010.

"We had a lovely, relaxing week at La Casa Piccola. We felt warming welcomed and cared for by Mary and Brian. A highlight was seeing the fireflies at night, like lights on a Christmas tree! Hannah, Malcolm and Harriet (19 months), Hobart, Australia. June, 2010.

"La Casa Piccola was a perfect base from which to tour the area and always a pleasure to return 'home.' Many thanks -- we hope to return for a longer stay next time." Christine and Mark Rose, West Yorkshire, June/July, 2010.

"We had a wonderful week -- enjoyed relaxing in your garden and using a kitchen that was so well-equipped. Thanks for a warm welcome and helpful advice." Gillian Benn and Elaine Rogers, UK, August 2010.

"La Casa Piccola provided a week away from the tourist hordes. We enjoyed the well-stocked library, the DVD/video collection, the magnificent views and the peace of the countryside. Many thanks for allowing us to stay." Alison and Ross Smyrk, Melbourne, Australia. October, 2010.

"Nothing but compliments regarding the house, the area and the owners. La Casa Piccola is a lovely house and Mary and Brian are excellent hosts." Peter , Annaliese and Eva Knies + Desmond, Arnhem, The Netherlands, July, 2009.

"Umbria Jazz was fantastic and the area has many delights to explore and enjoy. Mary and Brian are superb, accommodating and friendly hosts and La Casa Piccola is extremely comfortable. We will be recommending it to friends." David and Roey Barr, Kent, UK, late July, 2009.

"Spending our hoiday at La Casa Piccola was a really good choice. Our two weeks there were wonderful! It was a happy time we will never forget.' Elisabeth, Ton and Pepjn Franssen, The Netherlands, early August, 2009.

"We loved our time at La Casa Piccola, especially sitting out under the pergola eating our meals while looking out over the hills. It was a joy to explore the beautiful mediaeval streets of Assisi. Thank you to Mary and Brian for being so welcoming, friendly and helpful." Phil and Anne White, Leicester, UK, late August, 2009..

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Rental prices

Prices for group size 5
Period	From	To	Weekly	Nightly rate		Minimum  stay
				Weekday	Weekend
Low season	12 Nov 11	31 Mar 12	450£ 450	0-	0-	1 Week
Mid season	31 Mar 12	28 Apr 12	550£ 550	8080	8585	4 Nights
High season	28 Apr 12	6 Oct 12	600£ 600	8585	9090	4 Nights
Mid season	6 Oct 12	10 Nov 12	525£ 525	7575	8080	4 Nights
Low season	10 Nov 12	1 Jan 13	500£ 500	0-	0-	1 Week

The property's weekend rates apply to: Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights

NB: Prices may be subject to change at the advertiser's discretion.

The weekly rates are calculated on the basis that the rental will begin and end on a Saturday. However, other start and end days can sometimes be arranged with the owner. In addition, a cleaning fee of £40 will be asked for each booking, to cover laundering of bed linen, towels etc as well as cleaning of house.

The house would be available for long lets at a discount of 15%, negotiable.

A deposit of 25% is required at the time of booking. The remainder should be received two months before the start of your holiday. Payment can be made by electronic bank transfer or by cheque, made out to Mrs M K Fletcher, and sent to 34 Lincoln Court, Berkhamsted, HP4 3EN. The deposit is non-refundable. Once the final amount is received, you will be sent full instructions for finding the house, arrangements for keys etc.

Availability

See below for next 9 months' availability - to see the next 24 months click here

Availability notes:

La Casa Piccola is not available for rental during December, January and February.

Contact the owner

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2 years listed You are contacting Mary Fletcher Landline n/a Mobile +44 07973 751259 Languages spoken The owner is based in the United Kingdom and has advertised with Holiday Lettings since 2009. This villa has so far received 0 reviews.