Borgo Dei Conti Resort

Borgo Dei Conti Resort

Forty rooms fill three floors of a restored estate set seventeen kilometres outside Perugia, in the kind of Umbrian countryside where olive groves and hedgerows outnumber anything resembling a tour bus. That distance is worth knowing upfront: guests hoping to walk to Rocca Paolina or a piazza after dinner will need a car, since the borgo sits well outside the city it's named for. What sets it apart from other countryside resorts nearby is the Relais & Chateaux name attached to the door, a membership most properties in this part of Umbria don't carry. It shows in the small things a bigger resort would streamline away: a chapel with its own bridal suite for weddings, suites called Tower and Conte for the frescoes and coffered ceilings still inside them, a spa built through the villa's western wing with a steam room, sauna, solarium and massage on the list. Families get a children's pool, a playroom, babysitting on request, and quadruple suites built with four sharing in mind. Couples or anyone travelling without kids have the tennis court, the library, the outdoor pool, and breakfast served in the room if the terrace holds no appeal that morning. Pets under five kilos can come along for a modest fee, which quietly rules out larger dogs. None of this suits a guest wanting nightlife within stumbling distance or a one-night stopover; the whole design assumes guests will stay several days and use the grounds rather than leave them. By the second afternoon at the pool, with Perugia a car ride away and no particular reason to make the trip, that assumption starts to look correct. Borgo Dei Conti sits seventeen kilometres outside Perugia, a Relais & Chateaux estate with a chapel, a western-wing spa, and forty rooms across three floors. It suits guests happy to stay put rather than walk to a piazza; pets under five kilos are welcome, though a car is not optional.