Vista del Mondo

35 people for 1-week rental – A Complete success, starring Leonardo, Norma, Ioana, and Laurie I was hunting for the right place to host 35 people from around the world for 60th birthday gathering for my wife and I. We’ve been to Italy dozens of times but had only been to Umbria once or twice before. I found Villa Marianna and Norma on internet and got in contact about 8 months before the planned event. Norma and Laurie were extremely easy to deal with. Rates are far below the sometimes extremely high rates offered by other properties. To be honest, the Villas are not polished, Disneyland-type properties, but instead much more genuine and real. Also, Ioana, who does the housekeeping for the managers, was lovely and took care of all practical details and little questions that came up. The absolute highlight for all of us was Chef Leonardo, the gentle giant who arranged superb dinners on 6 of our 7 evenings at very good value, including the wine. He took lots of time to speak with anyone who was interested in discussing the cuisine and the preparations that evening. He also arranged a truffle hunt and wine tasting. We were all enchanted with his cooking and passion for food, as well as his totally-relaxed and flexible manner in dealing with this group that was sometimes moving in many different directions at the same time. Overall, we can warmly recommend the Villa Marianna and Vista del Mondo for anyone seeking the real Italian way of doing things.