PODERE POMASCIANO 10 - Umbria

RECEPTIVE STRUCTURE. The magical atmosphere that you breathe at Podere Pomasciano while sipping a glass of wine, fruit of the vineyard lying on the hill beyond the garden, is certainly also due to the events and legends that have followed on one another in these lands over the centuries, to the aura of magic and mystery that has always surrounded the Etruscan civilization that once inhabited these lands and that, thanks to a dense network of paths, used the farmhouse, situated in a dominant and strategic position, as a staging post in the route between Perugia and Orvieto.

The history of Podere Pomasciano is closely related to the legend that recounts of a young girl named Agatha who lived in the 16th century and who, after having drawn water from a spring on the property, stopped to rest in the shade of a majestic olive tree where the Virgin Mary appeared to her. The Madonna asked her to erect a small church in that spot and, to ensure that the young girl was believed, made her go home with her upturned jug miraculously filled with water.

On August 5, 1551 an unexpected snowfall traced the perimeter of what would be the future chapel, followed by the construction of the Shrine of the Madona degli Ulivi by the community of San Vito. The olive tree was enclosed under the high altar of the little church, while the water of the underlying spring is still today considered blessed by the locals and by the many pilgrims who, every year, visit the Shrine. In 1700 the farm was bought by the Corneli family, the current owners, who for more than two centuries have devotedly cultivated the fertile lands of San Vito a Monte; for many years these lands have been cultivated in accordance with the dictates of organic farming and the transformation in wine, oil, soups, boiled legumes and tasty sauces, without the use of preservatives, additives and flavourings, has been done in the Laboratorio Certificato Bio (organically certified laboratory) owned by the farm.

The house was inhabited up until 20 years ago by the farmworkers who worked these lands and, in 2013, was renovated with taste and elegance, in both the finishing touches and furnishings, maintaining intact its authenticity with exposed-stone façades, wooden-beamed ceilings and floors in terracotta manufactured in the old furnace of the farm which was active up to the postwar period. Its dominant position where there is always a pleasant breeze, the well-kept park with pool, the charming pond, the large vegetable garden at the guests' disposal and the various set-up living areas such as the shady terrace, the cool vine-covered pergola and the brightly-lit veranda allow you to appreciate the unspoilt rural scenery of the countryside that stretches as far as the eye can see in an area rich in well-preserved medieval villages and scenic sites of particular natural, faunistic and paleontological interest.

From here the most beautiful towns of Umbria, like Perugia, Todi, Orvieto, Assisi and Lake Trasimeno, and of nearby Tuscany are easily reachable in less than an hour.