Fitting that on our last day at the villa, Paul contributes a guest post on the beauty of this place:

First of all, let me take a minute to thank my lovely wife for keeping this blog. It’s been a great way to chronicle our trip and she has done a fantastic job.

I’m sitting on our terrazza at Villa Rosa, looking out over the Umbrian countryside. The sun has risen over Perugia in the distance and it’s very peaceful. The rooster did not wake us up this morning, but most of the sounds are from animals: birds singing, the cows at a nearby farm and the occasional neigh from the horses we met.

Villa Rosa has been a wonderful spot for us to enjoy central Umbria. It was incredibly easy to bring Papa in to Perugia (via the Mini metro) so he could enjoy the Jazz festival, and just as easy to hop on the superstrada and explore other towns. Having the pool has been huge for the kids, and us. I’ve particularly enjoyed the fact that everywhere I look, I see something growing. I think Karen has already mentioned Lino’s garden, but all around the property there is vegetation. There are little apple trees (I Melini), little pomegranate trees, peach trees, 3 different fig trees – 2 of which are huge and covered with figs, 2 almond trees, a very distinctive plum tree (Lino tells me it’s a very sweet, late October plum), to say nothing of the dozens of olive trees all around us. It truly is beautiful.

I think if there were no bugs, I’d try and convince Karen to stay a month (or more)….and it might work, because I think the kids would vote to stay! But it’s time to move on and explore more of this beautiful country. And how can I resist when we are going to the world capital of ham and cheese? Andiamo a Parma.

-P