Acqua Viva

Our little farm is nestled in the mountains of Valfabbrica at the Monte Della Dea at about 600m.
You are very welcome to our small separate guesthouse to enjoy the tranquillity of our mountains with your family or your friends. We do not like to become an impersonal county hotel with many visitors to fill the swimming pool, the tennis court or the bar. We like to keep Acqua Viva as it is, peaceful and small with space for just a few special guests who can share the beauty and peace of Acqua Viva with us.

The guesthouse consists of three spacious rooms with attached bath. Each room has a large glass-front. From your room you will see nothing but roses, rosemary, olive trees a beautiful valley and mountains. You may prepare your own meals in your very spacious kitchen equipped with a dishwasher, etc.
Outside in your garden you find private corners to rest on garden furniture under the jasmine or lilac bushes.
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Legend has it that in the old times offerings were given to a Goddess – la Dea. In fact those people had chosen a spectacular place. At the end of our fields you get a stunning view to Monte Subasio where St. Francis used to meditate with his holy Brothers. To the West you see a beautiful valley with a lake. The area is protected and rare birds like the heron come to catch fish there in the summer. In the East one marvels the beauty of Monte Cucco, the mountains of Gubbio and the Apennine chain with the snow capped tops in the blue winter skies which disappear in the clouds at 2700m (Monte Vettore).

The local villagers say that on his way to Gubbio St. Franics has passed our farmstead. If already in those days some farmer was tending his olives and goats at Acqua Viva remains uncertain. Only in the 18th century the houses of Casacastalda were documented. Surely Acqua Viva must have been already very old then.

Acqua Viva, or Living Water, belonged to the Diocese of Assisi and the peasants were tenant farmers.
The old farm house where we live today also had some stables. After the earthquake of 1997 the stables were changed into a beautiful guesthouse.

Acqua Viva and the land around is covered with oak forests, small farms, olive groves, pastures and fields of sunflower and wheat. The forests hide dear, wild boar, porcupine, marten, buzzards, hoopoes all of which we have seen on our farm.