A step back in time near one of the most beautiful (and visited) cities in Umbria: the Malvarina Farmhouse is a place like few others, the perfect place where to stay in Assisi.
You’ll reach the farmhouse climbing a little street on the slopes of Mount Subasio, overlooking Assisi. A narrow, twisty country street flanked by trees. A street that finishes in front of the farmhouse, a building totally overgrown with ivy with red leaves (in autumn, green in summer). Wooden windows, arched doors, a forecourt where the dogs play and further ahead another building with the wall full of iron and copper pots and a colored door facing the reception.
In the main building live the owners. Just Mrs. Maria came to welcome us: more than eighty years but the energy and the will of a thirty-year-old lady. She and her husband had set the farmhouse up more than forty years ago and it is now their treasure.
A treasure where they preserve things like they used to be, where they tend to make the guest live in an atmosphere of yesteryear.
The farmhouse extends on a huge terrain and there are a lot of things: a vegetable garden, the animals, the little houses/rooms for the guests (even some two floors apartments!), a restaurant, a breakfast room, a pool… even a little church, and here you can even get married if you want!
The thing that impressed me the most, in addition to seeing the love in Mrs. Maria’s eyes, were the utensils and the objects lying around: antiques like a cart, a plow, copper pots, iron bell… everything seems random, but they are well-studied details, to recreate atmospheres that we no longer remember.
The care and attention Maria and her husband have can also be seen in the rooms: spacious, with different furnishings in each room (I would call them houses, rather than rooms) because Mrs Maria doesn’t like the things done in series. How to blame her?
The Malvarina farmhouse is also famous for its restaurant: they have a fixed menu (30 euros, drinks included), that changes every day, based on what the season offers.
Mrs. Maria was the pioneer of cooking classes: she started teaching others already 23 years ago when Cracco and Ramsey didn’t even know how to hold a fork in their hands.
Here you can have a candlelit dinner, on wooden tables with red and white checkered napkins, waiting for the food prepared from scratch in the kitchen (for this reason the service could be a little slow: there is nothing previously prepared or frozen). That is also true for breakfast: in the morning, while you’re sitting at the table, you can see a lady preparing milk and coffee, serving it in hot cups.
That’s not all, the activities they do are many: tastings, cooking classes, guided tours, excursions… there is everything for everyone!
I would willingly go back, to be able to taste those dishes again and re-live that atmosphere of the past.
Shall we?
