Il Fontanaro

Pressing its own organic olive oil and teaching guests to cook with it, Fontanaro runs as a working farm as much as a place to stay. The estate sits on the border of Umbria and Tuscany, close to the medieval village of Paciano, and offers eleven homes across five villas. Fonte Cicerum, a stone farmhouse of 350 square metres, sleeps ten across five bedrooms and five bathrooms, with a salt water infinity pool looking over the countryside. Smaller villas such as Leccino and Frantoio hold two guests each in 60 square metres, while the Fontegirasole villas, including Ornellaia, take four or five guests in around 120 to 130 square metres. Cooking classes run in a farmhouse dating to 1893, using vegetables from the estate's own garden and olive oil pressed on site. Guests can walk the olive groves, tour the private mill, and taste the estate's Fonte della Pace extra virgin oil, a Slow Food presidium product. Beyond the farm, the estate arranges truffle hunts, wine tours into Umbria and Tuscany, cheese tours, and sailing on Lake Trasimeno. Fontanaro runs entirely on renewable energy. It sits roughly midway between Rome and Florence, a quiet base for exploring both regions without leaving the olive groves behind.