Monastery-Turned-Hotel in Orvieto
 

We stumbled across La Badia Hotel last week. It is just outside of Orvieto, and is a 6th century monastery turned into a hotel operated by a Count. There is a 12-sided medeival tower, ruins, buildings built during the 12th and 13th centuries, a lovely courtyard, olive groves, vineyards which produces its own label, wonderful dining in unique ancient rooms, swimming pool in the summer. It is a beautiful, serene place, with a stunning view of Orvieto. Four-star, our rooms were about 325,000 lire each. <BR> <BR>This is, in my opinion, the quintessential medeival Italian town experience, even though you are outside of Orvieto's walls.

Joanne, <BR>Thanks for the info! Can you give more specifics? Directions? How far outside Orvieto? walking distance? <BR>thanks in advance. <BR>

La Badia is one of the hotels listed on all the signs and in the guidebooks for Orvieto. There are actually three places to stay in Orvieto: inside the walls at the top of the hill, at the bottom of the hill, and in the next hill over at La Badia. We drove through Orvieto and looked at the 3 and 4 star hotels inside the walls at the top of the hill. We found the rooms to be very ordinary, and we had expected fantastic panoramic views, but basically you see rooftops and narrow medieval streets. There are a few mediocre hotels at the bottom of the hill. La Badia is at the bottom of the hill, then perhaps 3/4 mile from the bottom of the hill. It is on a raised hill also, and has a panormic view of Orvieto higher up, and the olive trees and vinyards. No, it is really not within walking distance because just getting up the hill to Orvieto takes a while by car. Hands down, it is the best place to stay.

We stayed at Orvieto on the top(riding up the funicular and parking at the train station) at a very pleasant inexpensive and very Italian hotel, the Duomo, a hundred yards from the beautiful cathedral.We loved being able to walk all through the medieval streets, enjoy the unique shops,especially a potter's shop hidden away from the main part, go to the museums and walk back to our room for a rest.We really enjoyed walking around with the mostly Italian crowd at night. <BR>The Badia is lovely, but it depends on whether you love to be right in the town, which we do.We might like to stay at the Badia one night just because it is very attractive,but for us nothing takes the place of staying right in the old part of town.That is why we go to Italy.

For those looking for decent budget lodging, I'll second the Duomo. Excellent location right off of the main square, we had a huge double without bath for L60,000 in 1997!!