Hidden Splendor in Umbria

Table for Two: The Luxury of Simplicity at Le Mandrie di San Paolo

The olive-wood oven at Le Mandrie, where staff perfectly-cooked and seasoned select local cuts of meat; the lamb, pork chops, steaks and sausage are all amazingly good, even if you're not a meat lover.

Sunset Swim: Alex chose the much-loved infinity pool design and placed a glass barrier at the terrace edge. "I wanted guests to have the sensation that they were flying over the Umbrian countryside."

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Last weekend my travel partner in crime and I decided to do something different from the usual: Italian summer weekend activity involves the typical (but always refreshing) visit to the plentiful and beckoning Mediterranean Sea, via beach or boat. The weekend forecast called for mare mosso – i.e. too much wave activity, so as to possibly render the experience unpleasant.

Our goals for the weekend were three: a swimming pool, a late check-out hour, and cool temperatures to relieve us from Rome’s humidity and heat. Having scoured Booking.it late into Friday night, we clicked to book an agriturismo high in the hills of Umbria. We ventured out mid-morning, leaving the capital two hours behind us for our destination: Le Mandrie di San Paolo, halfway between Assisi and Spello. Driving up to its remote location from the autostrada below, we found ourselves at a sixteenth-century Benedictine abbey that, after nine years of restoration, has become a by-turns rustic and cool retreat. Rustic for its typical regional stone and pine and olive-tree surroundings, cool for the uber-relaxing mood music playing subtly near the pool, frequented that weekend by young Scandinavians, a French family, and a Brazilian couple. Not to mention the fresh mountain air.

The mind behind Le Mandrie is Alessandro,  also our host during our stay. Alex conceived the idea of the hotel down to every last detail, with a balanced consideration of both “man and land": from the infinity pool that offers a view of Assisi and surroundings on one side and ascending forest on the other, to an olive-wood outdoor oven from which the more carnivorous guests can feast upon grilled lamb (raised on-site) and smoked sausages. Design touches such as rust-colored iron derived from old navy ships keep Le Mandrie's architectural authenticity intact, and a pin-point light whimsically placed in the odd stair-step lend it its own minimalistic tone.

Everything is handmade in the structure – nothing here is factory-assembled, which means Alex and the three families that own the property executed plenty of patience as they waited for their concept to be realized. But it was obviously worth it. Every inch of Le Mandrie is curated for comfort and relaxation, in the most sensory-pleasing way possible. So much so that we did not leave it the entire weekend; we chillaxed and read by the pool and then enjoyed a sunset barbecue all'Italiano. All local fare, complete with prosciutto and melone appetizers, tagliolini pasta with a delicate sausage and cream sauce, grilled and smoked meats from Umbria, and a panna cotta that would never leaving you regretting your choice to "dessert."

There are only twelve suites at Le Mandrie di San Paolo, so you can be completely alone or make friends if you want. As for us, we met all three of our weekend objectives, even managing to remain well past check-out on Sunday. Yet we also accomplished something more important, desired but not expressed: absolute tranquility. The simple luxury, in perfect harmony with the natural environment, and the blissful solitude of this place, left us content to let the hours drag on slowly and silently, feeling completely at home in what seemed a distant and far-off land.  I for one felt like I could have made this temporary retreat my permanent home.


Visit at: http://www.agriturismomandriesanpaolo.it/
Other mentions: http://www.booking.it