Hotel Villa Cristina, Spoleto, Umbria

Hotel Villa Cristina, Spoleto

Hotel Villa Cristina, Spoleto - set on a beautiful hillside with spectacular views down onto the 'centro storico' of the city itself, this Spoleto hotel is a perfect blend of town and country. This entirely restored 18th century country mansion is just a quarter of an hour's walk from the centre of Spoleto in fact. There is plenty of room to kick back and relax here: several of the rooms and mini apartments even have their own independent entrances. And at night the view is magical, with the castle illuminated below.

Set within two kilometres of immaculately preserved defensive walls, the old town of Spoleto seems little changed from its peak back in the 15th century. The Umbrian hill town (like so many others built as a defensible retreat from the internicine warfare of the valleys below) is a place of real beauty and charm, and it boasts some of Italy's oldest and finest Romanesque churches. Heading further back, the city became an important Roman centre (they had displaced the Umbrii tribe which founded Spoleto), and the walls managed to defeat no less than Hannibal, who headed here in the 3rd century BC following his victory at Trasimeno. An important Lombard capital in late antiquity, it became the powerful Duchy of Spoleto in the Middle Ages. Apart from those marvellous churches, there is a fine cathedral and a clutch of important Roman sights, including the theatre and amphitheatre. The 13th century aqueduct is spectacular and spans equally striking countryside - Umbria is not for nothing known as the 'green heart of Italy'.

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Double room from €54