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Carma R.Elais Country Estate
Bagnoregio, Viterbo, Italy
Carma R.Elais Country Estate
Bagnoregio, Viterbo, Italy
A Working Organic Farm in the Etruscan Hills
With a house motto of “Reclaim Time,” this gorgeous villa for rent in Italy fits our highest standards of being authentic and deeply personal. A working organic olive farm in the shadow of one of Italy’s most mystical mountain villages, the property offers a life of leisurely luxury to those who stay—breathtaking views, a veritable Garden of Eden rich with plums, apples, pomegranates, berries, and lemons to harvest, and exotic badlands, or calanchi (rippled, arid canyons) as a dramatic backdrop. The villa’s thoughtful furnishings follow the mantra of casual, natural luxury, and allow you to be one with nature in great style.
With its privileged location in the Etruscan hills, nestled at the base of the surreal village of Civita de Bagnoregio where Italian kings once bathed, this active organic olive farm offers spare, contemporary boutique hotel vibes. It presents a natural, earthy décor palette, an inspiring contemporary art collection, and a secret saltwater pool of blonde travertine stone. Solitary and sprawling, the property has produced organic olive oil for more than 20 years, and now welcomes guests seeking peace and quiet to its ethereal location.
Comprised of two units—a larger villa with three bedrooms and their en-suite baths, plus a separate, one bedroom home—there is ample room to spread out and enjoy life’s simplest pleasures: eating, reading, lazing and generally unwinding. The home was named for the Goddess of Olives and for the sense of calm its location offers, and its name is spot on. Each bedroom has an en-suite bath, natural fiber linens, and a soothing, earth-toned color palette.
Common areas are generous and open concept, with well-equipped food prep and dining spots both indoors and out. The three-bedroom unit is a two-story structure connected by a pathway to the smaller villa. Outdoor lounge areas are also aplenty, the pool is isolated and lovely, set away from the homes for added privacy. The entire property is green and soothing, laid out in the shadow of a dizzyingly topsy-turvy village of nine inhabitants, a veritable inland island connected to its surrounding landscape only by a precarious pedestrian bridge.
Nomad seekers have long sought out this central Italian region, once the land of Etruscans for its remote, magical quality, and Carma R.Elais feels worlds away. It belongs to a place where life is lived at a slower pace, a place of olive and fruit cultivation, of farmers’ markets and local artisans, of small towns, stone lined roadways, verdant hills and placid lakes.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
Services included: daily breakfast, three hours daily maid service, bed, bath and kitchen linens, personal care items, wifi, and final pool cleaning. Services on request: laundry service, private cook, yoga, Tai Chi classes, massages, and use of tasting room. It is possible to organize onsite workshops in yoga, cooking, wine or olive oil tastings.
AROUND
Civita di Bagnoregio soars over this villa for rent in Italy, and there are views of this fantastic hilltop village from nearly every room. Italian kings famously bathed in the spectacular village, today a no-cars-allowed inland island with a handful of inhabitants. Visiting the village as it’s waking up or slowing down, without day trippers in the streets, is one privilege of villa guests.
Lake Bolsena and other smaller lakes are easily accessible from the home, and car trips through the quaint hillside villages reveal markets, truffle hunts, horseback riders and vintners, all ready to share their products and experiences. The fantastical Parco dei Mostri, a 14th-century park dotted with stone-carved monsters is also close by, and another of the home’s mottos is “do as much or as little as you’d like.”
LOCATION
Civita di Bagnoregio, Viterbo, Central Italy. Nearest airport: Perugia (PEG) 62 km; Rome’s 2 airports, less than 100 km.
BEST TIME TO VISIT: May to October
