Umbria short break

Planet

We identified our suppliers among the ones that have a concern for the environment. For example, regarding accommodation and restaurants, we choose those that use local and/or organic products as much as possible, the so called “kilometer zero” (produced by local farms in the territory); those that care about recycling and are committed to reducing waste; that support the preservation of our landscape, with typical olive groves and vineyards.
We support a local NGO, TAMAT, that is working on EPGs, to create a direct link from local typical producers to citizens to sustain small local producers especially those in hills and mountainous areas and those committed to organic production. We support the organization of tours to discover their productions and make citizen aware of the importance of maintaining local and traditional productions (no GMO), even if less productive than modern ones.
The goal of the Umbria Region is to achieve the 65% of separate collection of rubbish in a few years. Some of the 92 Umbria municipalities have reached it yet. We help support Umbria environment giving to our clients information to support recycling explaining how to divide rubbish and where to trough it. The most common categories of rubbish are: organic waste, non-recyclable waste and recyclable waste (paper, plastic, tin and glass). In the streets or in the hotels and B&B, you will find several containers that have different colours and have a label -written only in Italian- explaining what it must collect, so we provide our travellers with a simple guide with instructions to sustain recycling: check our little guide before disposing of your garbage to be eco-friendly!

People

We give to our clients a list of farmers’ markets: open air food shops from the producer to the consumer, vegetables organically grown and “Km0" farms. Buying and tasting their products is a way to support small local producers that otherwise risk to disappear. Farmers’ markets in Umbria are part of a project called “ Campagna Amica” that identifies and safeguards Italian and certified farmers’ products. In these markets you can find women producing buffalo mozzarella and cheeses, farmers with fresh fruit and vegetables (there is also a cooperative that sells products grown in a jail by prisoners), producing and selling typical flours and beans and so on. We support “La Spesa in Campagna” an another great initiative supporting the resilience of short, local food supply, promoting values of identity and social responsibility; increasing viability of rural farming and local producers.
We work with local guides who know their territory inside out and are committed to promoting the historic, artistic and cultural heritage of the territory and making people aware about Umbria cultural heritage.
We support another great project from the locally based NGO TAMAT: a social start up purchasing network of producers supporting the local economy and effecting social change. This project has Plymouth University as partner, a pioneering institution to embed a culture of social entrepreneurship and sustainability in the UK.