Palazzo Bontadosi Hotel & Spa
Style Cardinal’s inn
Setting Mountainous Montefalco
Fresco-filled Palazzo Bontadosi hotel is the former home of a 15th-century cardinal, the place he once entertained his many ragazze. Perched high on an Umbrian hilltop, it’s a vaulted palace, with an underground spa, gilded restaurant and its own art gallery.
Need to know
- Rooms 10, including four suites.
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Rates
Double rooms from $193.44 (€154), excluding tax at 10 per cent.
Prices have been converted from the hotel's local currency (€154), via XE.com, using today's exchange rate.
- Facilities Spa, art gallery, and free WiFi in communal areas and some rooms. In rooms: flatscreen TV and minibar.
- Poolside There’s a small heated saltwater pool underground in the cellar spa, with lights illuminating the ceiling.
- Check-out Midday. Earliest check-in, 2pm.
- Children Cots for babies are €10 a day, extra beds will set you back €40. Hotel staff can babysit for €20 an hour.
Food and drink at Palazzo Bontadosi Hotel & Spa
- Hotel restaurant Aurum is a restaurant fit for a former palace, suitably dripping in gold, with white Verner Panton chairs, wine-stocked shelves, vaulted ceilings and gilded domes. The menu changes with the seasons, but expect contemporary cuisine such as gnocchi with wild boar ragout, cocoa and orange peel, and leg of lamb with chestnuts and radishes.
- Dress code Cardinal reds, with a golden touch.
- Top table To make the most of being on this hilly perch, opt for the terrace in summer, or inside by the window for peering over the piazza.
- Last orders For breakfast, make sure you’re seated between 8am and 10.30am; lunch takes place between 1pm and 3pm; dinner is served from 8pm until 10.30pm.
- Room service The full menu is on offer during the restaurant’s opening hours.
- Hotel bar There’s a bar next door, by the art gallery, mixing mojitos and serving an extensive selection of local red, sagrantino.
Palazzo Bontadosi Hotel & Spa Piazza del Comune, 19, Montefalco (PG), 06036
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Smith extra at Palazzo Bontadosi Hotel & Spa
Two tickets to the Museum of Montefalco, a tour and tasting at the Colle Ciocco Winery and a 20 per cent discount card for the Tessuti Artistico Umbro fabric and furnishing store
In the know
Our favourite rooms
Fresco fans should request Room 1, Cardinal Bontadosi's original study, which has frescoes covering every rafter, including the walls and domed ceiling. The bathroom is in the alcove where the cardinal entertained his girlfriends 500 years ago. Room 7 is the only room with a terrace and comes with a rather lovely view of Umbria.
Packing tips
This is the balcony of Umbria, so bring your binoculars, sketch book and sharpened pencils.
Also
The oldest part of the building (a mediaeval cellar dating back to the 12th century) houses the subterranean spa, which has a Turkish bath, saltwater pool and treatments including warm-water massages and grape facials.
From the Guestbook…
After a rather bad start to the day (flat tyre on the M11 resulting in a missed flight), we finally got to Palazzo Bontadosi late afternoon. The rather troublesome journey made the...
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