Retreat to Italy this Christmas

Why not escape the winter gloom and spend Christmas and the New Year at Prato Di Sotto, near Umbertide in Italy? Just 35 minutes from Perugia and 15 minutes from Umbertide you can spend the most romantic Christmas nestled in elegant and traditional Italian cottages in the mountains owned by Penny Radford.

“There are some very good reasons to come to Umbria outside the traditional summer holiday period. For example, an exceptionally good airline prices and of course the direct RyanAir flight from Stansted to Perugia” says Penny.

There is a lot going on there in the winter months, food festivals, antique markets and a good concert season. Penny can even book tickets for you too.

There is also the winter season of Umbria Jazz in Orvieto. The wonderful art galleries of Florence, Siena and Perugia are uncrowded too. The Christmas season itself brings concerts in beautiful churches and many villages have living nativity scenes.

All the houses and apartments at Prato Di Sotto are warm and cosy with log fires for those wanting to stay in and take it easy with a big selection of books, CDs and DVDs and Penny can offer delicious dinners cooked on the premises if you like.

As always they have our own fresh eggs, some home grown vegetables and homemade jams, a real country house atmosphere, complete with dogs, cats and chickens!

The Umbrian hills are beautiful and peaceful in the Winter months and the lower temperatures are ideal for walking, before returning here for roast chestnuts in front of the fire, good food and wine.

Sounds appealing?

For more information, log on to Umbriaholidays.com.