Reviewed 18 Jun 2008 by Celia Claxton
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Most memorable was visiting the hill top towns of Le Marche, especially San Leo & Fermo.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Be prepared for all weathers! Our experience on visiting Italy this time of year was a bit off mark from the sort of weather we had, supposedly the worst for 57 years!
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
I hope so. We used local restaurants & shops and recycled as much of our waste that we could.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
This is a difficult one, as the weather was a great factor in our holiday, but if you take that out of the equation we had a lovely restful & quiet holiday. The accommodation was fantastic as were the owners who were extremely helpful. We didn't want for anything, except a bit less rain and a bit more sun!!
Reviewed 01 Oct 2007 by Sue Proffitt
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
It's difficult to isolate one memorable or exciting event out of a period of time that felt so integrated. The journeys we made to different towns and villages in the region were always exciting; even the smallest community had something special: a castle, an ancient fort, a sacred work of art, to see. The mountains were extraordinarily beautiful and wild; we loved our walks in the Furlo Gorge and the Gorge of the Hermitage. If we return, we would want to find more walking trails in the mountains.
Being able to divide our travelling time between wild natural places and beautiful villages and towns was very rewarding. Urbino, in particular, with the richness of its art and architecture, was wonderful to visit. The Frassassi Caves were spectacular, although this was the only place where I felt we were being 'processed' as tourists, and where there was a strong commercial current running underneath the natural site itself, which detracted from its majesty and beauty. When you are in a place that is well over a million years old, it feels oppressive, and disrespectful to the site itself, to be rushed through it!
Underneath all the beauty and the wildness of the region, we both appreciated deeply the friendliness and hospitality of the people we met on our journeys. The sense of community and connectedness between people of all ages was tangible: the respect for local history and a refusal to conform to the corporate, the bland and the tawdry was very striking and, we felt, contrasted strongly with our own landscapes in England, where so often, one town looks exactly like another and where historical sites have been eradicated in favour of shopping malls....
And, back home, the place where we were staying was equally memorable. It did feel like 'home' for the two weeks we were there. It was beautiful, it was quiet, it was private, and we were treated with enormous generosity, warmth and care by both Giulia and her family. It allowed us to relax and settle into a pace of living that neither of us have been able to inhabit for years, where it was possible to track the sun through the sky from morning to dusk, and feel happy to have done nothing more than read, swim, sit in the sun, walk around the grounds and be loving to the animals around the place.
I was unwell for the first 5 days of the holiday and Giulia went out of her way to help, both in terms of getting me a doctor and offering to translate for me when he arrived. Thank you.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
As with all holidays, it's important to be clear about what you want from your time on holiday. We wanted a peaceful and beautiful environment: with choices about places to go, but without feeling saturated by possibilities and demands on our time.
This region of Italy is very beautiful in many ways. It needs more time than a few days to appreciate it.
We both wished we had some fluency and confidence with the Italian language. We did try to talk Italian and, when we did, we were treated with great courtesy and patience! However, our lack of ability frustrated us both and we both felt we would want to work harder at being more conversant in the language next time we go.
We have both made a decision not to fly any more, because of the damage it wreaks on our environment. We therefore made the journey by trains, and hired a car whilst at the farm. This worked really well. The journey took longer, but became an integral part of the holiday itself and was exciting in its own right. I would therefore encourage other people to do the same, and take the time to plan your journey accordingly.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes, I think so. Because we were on a working farm, it was clear that the revenue from holiday was being used directly to benefit the working enterprise of the farm itself, and the people who are working on it. We chose this venue because it was an enterprise committed to organic principles and conservation of the environment; we would both have welcomed having this ethos even more evident than it was. For example, we were happy to separate out our rubbish into what was compostable and what wasn't, and we did so, but there wasn't any requirement for us to do that.
The commitment that Giulia felt towards the farm was obvious; I would have liked to have walked round it with her, had that been possible, but I didn't get round to asking her - I would next time!
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Wonderful. Thank you.
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