When we saw the photos of this hotel on the Borgo dei Conti website and in the Relais & Châteaux App, we thought: "Well, these photos are so nice, they've certainly been manipulated a bit – but even if it's half as beautiful there, it's worth a try." This said, we booked a fortnight's stay at the Borgo for late June 2016. And the only thing we've ever regretted since then was having to leave again!
This place with all its people, its food and surroundings is really so wonderful, that it's hard to describe:
Let's start with the site itself. It's true – the photos don't match reality. But with respect to the Borgo dei Conti, it's not that the photos are nicer than reality – quite in contrast: They don't come up to reality at all: With its unique historic villa, the attached houses and its cute little church (in fact, it's still like a little village – a borgo), its spacious rooms where history meets modern luxury, its beautiful flowers everywhere (oleander, lavender, jasmine, to name but a few), its huge park with several small lakes, trails through its deciduous forest (in which you can see a myriad of fireflies at night in June), its pools and spa area, and its **, the Borgo dei Conti is a really outstanding holiday resort.
Throughout the entire site, there are uncountable places to sit down, lean back and relax and it's so spacious that even after a fortnight's stay we still discovered new details and places, especially since one of the staff members was as friendly as to point out some of the historic details of the chateaux / villa shortly before we left.
And this brings us to the second key topic: The staff. As with every hotel, its staff is of utmost importance. And here, too, the Borgo dei Conti offers an exceptional benefit for its guests: Its staff are friendly, always ready to assist in whatever requests the guests may have, and when there's a problem, they react immediately and solve it. Despite their enormous workload, they remember little details with all of their clients and they truly work as a team. In sharp contrast to many other places, the manager, Maître de Maison M. Giorgio Mereu, does not put himself forward, but quietly and most effectively orchestrates his team from behind the scenes. Everyone at the Borgo – the front-desk staff, the team at the pool and the spa area, the staff that look after the rooms and the gardens and, last but definitely not least, the team at the restaurant and the kitchen – really does a great job and they all really try very hard (and succeed!) in making their guests' stay a holiday worth to remember.
Having mentioned the team at the restaurant and the kitchen, we come to another jewel of this great resort: The kitchen of the Borgo is being run by a wonderful chef, Matteo Matteucci (Marco). Although his food is of exceptional quality and creativity and he genuinely combines local Umbrian ingredients to form truly enjoyable dinners, he does not make a great fuss about it but is very circumspect. As some people wrote in their reviews, the menu might not be huge (after all, the dishes are carefully chosen and depend on the season), but there was enough variety for us to discover something new every night during all of our fortnight's stay.
Without really knowing what we did, we booked a "private dinner" at the Borgo dei Conti when doing our initial reservation. I don't want to spoil anyone's experience so I won't go into detail here, but what I need to say is: If you ever get the chance to book your private dinner at the Borgo – do it! You will certainly not regret it and it'll be one of those things that you'll remember for the rest of your life. What we got was truly incredible – with respect to the service, the food and the setting. And we certainly will not forget it for the rest of our lives. Thanks for that, Marco.
The restaurant, La Limonaia, is also very amiable – you can have dinner inside a beautifully restored former ballroom or (at least during summer) sit outside on a lovely terrace, which is both very enjoyable. And the team at the restaurant – how else could it be – is also extremely kind and attentive, making every dinner there a special experience.
Although there's still so much so say about this place, let me finish with a couple of remarks on the region in which the Borgo dei Conti is situated: The Umbrian countryside. We've never been to Umbria before, nor had we heard anything about it in advance – quite in contrast to one of its direct neighbors, Tuscany. Umbria is really at the heart of Italy: It's the only region that has neither a coast nor borders a foreign country. As a result, it is really unknown to many. Nonetheless, it’s a beautiful region, characterized by very friendly people, with lots of old villages and many really wonderful historic places to see – and if you really do want to visit Tuscany (because everybody talks about it), you can do so – Siena is only about a 1,5h drive away and Firenze 154 km. But there really is no need whatsoever to visit those places in Tuscany which are crowded by tourists and where people seem to be rather unfriendly (we visited Siena). In Umbria there are more places that are worth a visit than you could ever press in a holiday's time (e.g. sunset at San Feliciano or the islands at Lake Trasimeno, a visit to Assisi with a dinner at La Locanda del Cardinale, shopping and sightseeing at Solomeo, etc.).
But there's one thing that you will definitely need when travelling through Umbria and when staying at the Borgo: A car. The Borgo dei Conti is indeed situated in the Umbrian countryside and you would be lost without a car (be careful, however, it does take getting used to the streets and you also need a route guidance system to find your way).
All in all, the Borgo dei Conti is a genuinely wonderful place to spend a truly unique holiday in the Umbrian countryside with excellent food, very friendly people and plenty of time and opportunities to relax.
If, however, you are looking for a place where there's lots of distraction in the form of animators or the like during daytime and where you can go out at night and have parties, take my advice: Don’t go there. You won't be happy – neither at the hotel nor in the Umbrian countryside.
We really did enjoy this first trip there thoroughly and we are very much looking forward to visiting Umbria and the Borgo dei Conti again in the not too distant future!