Welcome back to Beautiful Spaces—a series of posts in which I talk about the apartments, hotels, hostels, & B&Bs I stay in during my travels. It all started in 2013 when I realized that my contentment on the road is directly connected to how much I love where I’m living…and so made a commitment to find beautiful spaces to call home along the way. The owner of this Italian studio apartment was kind enough to extend a complimentary stay in exchange for this review. As always, opinions are my own.
After more than a month in busy, chaotic, gritty Rome and with our one-year anniversary fast approaching, Chad and I decided to escape from the city for a weekend in my favorite Italian hill town: Assisi.
Known for being the birthplace of St. Francis (one of Italy’s patron saints), the clean, pretty, classically Italian town attracts religious pilgrims and nature-lovers like. It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site—a fact that’s not hard to believe when you’re standing on the pinkish cobblestone streets staring in awe at the pearly basilica.
Personally, I love Assisi for its clean, pretty streets, its charming, delicious local goods shops, and–most of all–its setting. A short walk down the hill takes you through olive groves and forests, past waterfalls and into seemingly secluded former nunneries. And all you have to do is look over your shoulder to see the town sprawled above you, often shrouded in mist.
We liked the apartment for a lot of reasons—its pretty views, its central location, the cozy couch, the well-equipped kitchen—but the thing we loved most was the plush, cloud-soft bed, perfectly poised for naps in the sun in the mid-afternoon. In between explorations, that’s where you’d find the three of us: sprawled in a sun spot snoozing.
“How can we go back to our Rome bed after this?” Chad lamented.
It was also a sweet relief to be somewhere so dog friendly. Often in my travels, I find myself asking landlords to make exceptions for Luna. And they often do. But with Brigolante, no exception is required. They’re dog-friendly and are happy to welcome your fuzziest family members. It’s nice to remove that extra layer of hassle and just go on vacation with my two loves, one of which happens to be four-legged.
The owner, a vibrant American woman named Rebecca who has spent nearly two decades living in Italy, lives just downstairs and is easy to reach and quick to respond if you need anything at all. She was also kind enough to go above and beyond, offering us a ride down the hill to the train station at the end of our trip so we wouldn’t have to take the bus.
Overall, I highly recommend the apartment (and her other spaces look just as lovely). We would stay there again in a heartbeat.
If you’d like to book a Brigolante apartment, you can book here. Tell Rebecca I sent you.