San Venanzo is a comune (a municipality) which is part of the province of Terni in the region of Umbria, located about 18 miles southwest of Perugia (the capital of Umbria) and about 25 miles northwest of Terni. As of January 1, 2010, it had a population of about 1500 people. Umbria, by the way, lies directly next to the province of Tuscany. I can tell you from first-hand experience that Tuscany has nothing over Umbria as far as beauty and the best the country has to offer.
San Venanzo occupies an area of a little over 65 square miles, most of which is breathtakingly beautiful rolling farmland. San Venanzo is at the top of Mount Puglia and has an elevation of 1564 feet, thus, one looks out to incredible views such as the ones above. The municipality of San Venanzo contains different frazioni (little hamlets). These include the hamlets of Ospedaletto, San Marino, Pornello, San Vito, Poggio Aquilone, Civitella dei Conti, Collelungo, Rotecastello, and Ripalvella, all of which are nearby, all of which are charming, quaint and beautiful, and all worth visiting as time might allow. San Venanzo also borders the following larger full-sized towns of: Because it’s a hill town, (again the elevation is 1564 feet) you have tremendous views, ESPECIALLY from the house.
The town band plays for every festival and feast day.
The town picnic is held every June,
and in August, nearby Rotecastello holds it annual medieval festival which is fascinating and a lot of fun.
Concerts are held on the piazza, and the town celebrates the feast of it’s patron saint (Saint Venanzo, a 15 year old boy who died at the hands of the Romans rather than renounce his faith) with an incredible fireworks show in September.
Additionally, San Venanzo has it's own soccer team (a source of great pride since only 1 in 100 towns has one) and a new soccer stadium.
There is also a large, public pool with a picnic area that is immaculately clean and beautiful. For an adult it’s about $5 to use the pool for the entire day (less for children). After 3pm it’s even cheaper and of course, there’s still plenty of sun since it doesn’t get dark in the summer (and high on our mountain) until 8:30pm or so. There are lounge chairs for sunbathing, tables and umbrellas, a kiddies’ pool, a great snack stand where you can purchase good food, wine, even a mixed drink if you wish, along with all of the traditional snacks such as ice cream, chips etc. A day or more at the pool is not to be missed. It’s a nice walk of about 1.25 miles, or, of course, a very short drive. Parking is free. There are excellent lifeguards, and the concession workers are also very nice, as well. The village has an excellent bakery, an excellent meat market,
a fruit and vegetable store, about four cafes, and about 2 dozen other stores covering everything from hair salons to florists, Only 1.5 blocks from the house is an excellent, reasonably priced restaurant with excellent house wine (a source of pride for a restaurant is what you think of their house wine) Other good restaurants are in the area as well.
and my property manager, Janine, lives nearby and is always available by cell phone should you need her for anything. She also meets, greets and orients all of my renters to the house upon arrival, as well.
Umbria consists predominantly of rolling farmlands. Many consider the region to be the agricultural heartland of Italy. Natives and visitors thus get to enjoy bountiful farmstands and open-farm markets throughout the region. Umbrian wine is also delicious (and still a secret) and has been produced for literally thousands of years.
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