We stayed with a group of 12 at the Palazzo on a tour of Tuscany. It is nicely located close to Sansepolcro. Within walking distance downhill. The owner Mr Venturo ran a very success restruant in Sansepolcro for 40 years. His food is fantastic. We had three of our dinners with him. He prepared and served the food to our group himself. He was so proud of his cooking. And he should be. We looked forward to seeing what he made for us each night. Our rooms were the best. He must have spent a fortune fixing up the old villa. We couldn't get over how much we loved the place. We watch deer run through his olive grove at night outside our dining room. We would recommend this to our friends visiting Tuscany or Umbria.

We arrived on a dull February day to be greeted in the car park by the proprietor, a smiling, warm, jovial man who greeted us with an enthusiastic, firm handshake (always a good sign). We were ushered into the Palazzo where the attention to detail of this enormous restoration project was evident from the minute we walked in the door. Utterly gorgeous! We were shown a few rooms of which we could choose the one we liked most. A cot was carried upstairs for our 9 month old and placed in our chosen room. We sat back and relished the extraordinary views from our small window, right across the countryside to the medieval town of Sansepolcro. The rooms are beautifully restored with huge beamed ceilings and typical Tuscan furnishings. We slept extremely well in the generous wrought-iron beds. However, the highlight of our 3 day stay in Palazzo di Luglio had to be the feast that awaited us each evening. We dined at a huge table and benches right beside an enormous open fire. Because we were lucky enough to be the only guests at that particular time, we got top treatment. The food prepared lovingly by the proprietor and his wife was Tuscan food at its best. We struggled to come up with superlatives to compliment the chef. It was all so wonderful. Here was a man who revelled in the preparation and serving of his food and we devoured it greedily. Would we return again? We're about to book our stay at Easter!