In less than half an hour you can be -

• swimming in one of the many nearby pools ranging from Olympic size to ones with water slides and simply stunning views of the valley below
• joining local villages at their summer festivals (or ‘sagre’), each of which specializes in the food of the village (such as wild asparagus, snails, truffles, or duck)

• exploring the wild natural beauty of the Valnerina, enjoying lunch of fresh water fish from the river Nera, and visiting the ancient abbey of San Pietro in Valle built on a pre-Roman religious site by the ‘longobardi’, the Goths from northern Europe, who marched through Italy between 9th and 12th centuries.

• Visiting the world famous Spoleto Arts Festival in June/July or simply wandering the exquisite narrow streets and admiring the Roman forum of this jewel of a medieval city, including the arch where the people of Spoleto stopped Hannibal’s march on Rome by pouring boiling oil on his elephants