Agriturismo

Our friend, Paige, had only one special request for her entire stay here, and that was to see the gardens in Tivoli. Her dad visited them many years ago and they had been a really special memory for him. Since one of P's childhood friends was flying into Rome on Sunday to meet up with us, we had the perfect opportuniity to spend a weekend at an agriturismo and visit Tivoli.

Agriturismos are very popular throughout Italy for lodging and/or food. They are generally farms or rural that may or may not have a restaurant and may or may not have lodging. For example, we have an agriturismo near our house that is a farm with a restaurant. The restaurants generally serve food and wine grown or produced on-site. The ones that offer lodging can run the gamut from ultra-luxe to a simple room or guesthouse. We picked Tenuta Colfiorito as it was the closest one I could find to Tivoli that accepts dogs, and we'd decided to bring Scully along on this vacation. After our difficulties finding the place (detailed in Friday-One of Those Days post), we were delighted to find the place to have been well worth the trouble. The farm is a certified, organic olive tree farm with rooms in a gorgeous, stone building that looks as if it just grew up out of the land. The building is atop some ruins, and we could see the remains of a Roman column just outside our door. I still marvel at the fact that these types of ruins have become a part of my daily life.

The grounds had gorgeous landscaping, olive trees spread off into the distance, a small chapel sat the end of a long drive with cypress trees, and rising up off the drive were two, beautiful and distinctly different buildings - one made of stone and with an ancient feel to it (this is the one built atop a ruin) and the other, a brightly painted, coral structure with iron railings and huge wooden doors. Our room was yellow, with white furniture, terracotta tile floors, and a wooden beamed ceiling, views over the grounds, and a nice sized kitchenette. Upon browsing through our agriturismo information packet, we found they sell some of their products to guests - they make one red wine (3.50euros/bottle), olive oil (of course), and four different olive spreads. We bought some of everything. Our first agriturismo visit for lodging was wonderful and restful, and I can't wait to visit another one.