Where to stay

Villa holidays in Umbria – how to choose the right house

What the listing photos don’t show you, the legal must-haves, and the checklist we’d use before booking a house in Umbria. From people about to rent one out themselves.

Photo: Maarten Heerlien, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Facts checked: October 2026. Declared interest: we own a house in Collestatte that will be available to rent (how this site makes money).

A rented house is the best way to do Umbria: space, a garden or pool, a kitchen for the things you bring back from the market, and a base you don’t have to pack up every two days. It’s also the easiest way to get a holiday wrong, because the photos never show the gravel road, the 25-minute drive for bread or the pool that opens in June. Getting our own house ready for guests has made us look hard at what good looks like. This is the checklist we’d use.

First decide which Umbria you want

“Umbria” in a listing can mean anywhere from the edge of Tuscany to the mountains of the Sibillini, and the experience is different in each. The north, around Perugia, Assisi and Lake Trasimeno, is the classic first trip and has the most choice. The centre, the Spoleto valley with Montefalco, Bevagna and Spello, is wine and small-town country. The south, around Terni, Narni and the Marmore Falls, is greener and wetter, with lakes and river gorges, and is the closest to Rome. Our guide to the best places to visit in Umbria explains the differences; pick the area for what you want to do on day three, not for the photo on day one.

Remote or walkable? The decision that matters most

Most villa disappointments come down to one thing: distance. A house “in the countryside near Assisi” can be twenty minutes of unpaved road from anything. That’s wonderful if you want silence and you’re happy to drive for every meal; it’s wearing if you have teenagers, or one person ends up as designated driver every evening. Before you book, put the address into a map and check three things: how far it is on foot to the nearest bar or restaurant, how much of the drive is on a strada bianca (white gravel road) and how long the round trip to a supermarket really takes. A house on the edge of a village, where you can walk out for an espresso, changes the whole feel of a week.

The checklist we’d use before booking

The legal bits (they protect you too)

• A CIN code on the listing. Every short-term rental in Italy now needs a national identification code, the Codice Identificativo Nazionale, which has to appear on every listing and advert and on the outside of the building. No CIN is a red flag about everything else.
• Safety kit. The same rules require working gas and carbon monoxide detectors and fire extinguishers in short-term lets. It’s reasonable to ask the owner to confirm them.
• Your passports at check-in. Italian law requires hosts to register every guest, children included, with the police within 24 hours of arrival, so you’ll be asked for ID for everyone. Expect the host to check it in person or on a video call; a key box on its own isn’t enough under current rules.
• Tourist tax. Many comuni charge an imposta di soggiorno, collected by the host and usually paid locally on arrival. Ask whether it’s included in the price.

The house

• The pool’s season. Ask the exact dates it’s open and whether it’s heated. A pool that opens “in late spring” may still be covered in your May week.
• Is it fenced? If you have small children, ask for a photo of the pool from the house, not just the drone shot.
• Air-conditioning in the bedrooms. Thick stone walls help a lot, but in a July heatwave you’ll want it where you sleep.
• Heating, if you come in spring or autumn. Evenings in the hills can be properly cold in April and late October.
• Beds and bathrooms. “Sleeps 10” sometimes means sofa beds. Count the real bedrooms and the bathrooms.
• Wi-Fi and phone signal. Some valleys have neither. If you need to work, ask for a speed test.
• What’s included. Linen, towels, final cleaning, firewood, air-con and heating are sometimes extras. Get the full price in writing.

The terms

• Deposit and cancellation. Read them before you fall in love with the kitchen.
• Arrival times. Many houses have a Saturday-to-Saturday rhythm in summer and set check-in windows. Flights that land late can mean a night somewhere else.
• Who you’ll deal with. An owner who lives nearby, an agency or a remote manager: all can work, but know whose phone rings when the boiler stops.

Villa, agriturismo or hotel?

If you’re centred on the falls and the lakes, our honest where to stay near Marmore Falls compares the southern bases area by area.

When to book

The best houses for July and August go early, often months ahead, and so do Easter and the long Italian holiday weekends, the ponti around 25 April, 1 May and 2 June. May, June, September and early October are the sweet spot: warm enough for the pool in the south, green, and quieter. Winter has its own appeal, with fires, truffles and empty towns, but check the heating and whether the pool is drained.

Getting there

Most visitors fly into Rome (Fiumicino or Ciampino) or Perugia’s San Francesco d’Assisi airport and hire a car. Southern Umbria is the easiest part of the region to reach from Rome: from Collestatte it’s around 90 minutes by road. You can reach the main towns by train, but a rental house almost always means a car.

Frequently asked questions