Rome and Venice-Umbria Help in between
 

I will be arriving in Italy on honeymoon for 10 days, mid Sept. before a long weekend London, where my fiance is from. Based on the fact that we don't want to unpack every night, I thought Three days each in Rome and Venice and a few in the Umbria region. We don't want to rush and unpack all the time but I can't pass up Umbria. Where in Umbria? We want to make sure we visit a vineyard, stay in somewhat upscale lodging (not a slick hotel) that has fabulous views of the countryside. Any suggestions? We're open for renting a car.
Thank you for your help!

We did the same thing for our honeymoon and stayed in Assisi at the Hotel Umbra. It was wonderful, we took the train and found the hotel no problem. It was right in the centre of town and had a fabulous restaurant!

Hotel Fontebella is also a good choice in Assisi. Particularly convenient if you are driving.

Best wishes,

Rex

just returned from 18 days in italy, 6 in umbria. perugia, the capital of the region, is lovely and cosmopolitan (it's a university town with the largest italian language school in the country). if you are interested in pottery an hour or two in deruta is well worth the time and the prices compared to u.s. are so so cheap. as an alternative to assisi, you might consider orvieto, a lovely wine area, unless you interested in the religious sites important to assisi. either way, enjoy...

We are going to Umbria soon and shall be staying at Villa Rosa in Montemelino. It's very near to Perugia. If you'd like to read some reviews, they can be found on slowtrav.com. They also have a website. My parents were there for two months and were so impressed with the place, the beauty of the location, and the young couple who run the Villa that they talked us into staying there.

On the subject of wineries, this one in Montalcino Tuscany was highly recommended to us: www.castellobanfi.com. It's on our list to see. It's 35 miles south of Siena, and easily reachable from Umbria. If you enter "Montalcino" in the text search, you'll come up lots of talk about vineyards.