Travel Journal: Italy – Castello Orsini Hotel

In September, I traveled to Italy for two weeks with some of my family, which included an 85-mile, 6 day self-guided walking tour through the Italian countryside. We also spent time in Rome, Venice, Florence, Pompeii and Naples. 

Catch up on my other posts about this trip here:

Walking Rieti to Rome – Summary
Doors of Italy
Exploring Rieti
Self-Guided Walk Day 1
Self-Guided Walk Day 2
Self-Guided Walk Day 3
Castello Orsini Hotel
Self-Guided Walk Days 4 and 5
Self-Guided Walk Day 6
The Colosseum and Exploring Rome
St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museum
Pompeii and Naples
Venice
Florence

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Our walk on the third day took us to Nerola where we stayed at the Castello Orsini Hotel, which is a 12th century castle!

This was SO COOL and without a doubt my favorite place we stayed throughout the whole trip. We took so many photos and enjoyed it so much that I decided it needed to have its own post. Unfortunately the lighting was not all that great inside, so even the few I am sharing in this post really do not do it justice. However, the castle does have an Instagram account and they feature some beautiful photos so you should definitely check that out!

In the 12th century, the fiefdom (an estate or territory granted to someone in return for allegiance or service), was granted to the Orsini family, who built the present castle. Since then it changed hands a number of times until the last change in 1939. It was eventually restored and now houses the hotel.

One of the most unique parts was that every private room was so different. Most of them had built-ins added to create more living space since the ceilings were so high. The public spaces were essentially museums and since we got in later than expected the evening before, we took some extra time in the morning to explore a bit. There were lots of balconies and terraces with beautiful views, and my Mom and I eventually found a way to go out on part of the roof. There had been a wedding there a day or two before so we also saw the remnants of that event.

If you are planning a trip to Italy and looking at spending some time outside of the major cities, then I would highly recommend a visit here or something similar.

Most of the rooms had these built-in stairs that led to platforms where most of the beds were in the rooms.

This was a homemade creamy gnocchi with mushroom truffles. Basically it was like really fancy mac and cheese and it was delicious!

From the rooftop.

The views were amazing!

The inner courtyard.

Everywhere they had empty wine bottles, corks and wine glasses incorporated as decoration.

Like I said, the lighting was difficult in some areas, including this area near the kitchen that had this pit of corks. The picture above with the bottles was in the same room so you can kind of see the lighting. I think I took the cork picture in the morning though when the bright colored lights weren’t one or as bright, plus I think this one was with my phone. But the point is, that this was a really fun feature! And my Mom may or may not have snatched a cork from there for me. I’m guessing it wouldn’t have been a bit deal if I had asked, but this makes a better story 🙂

Thanks for stopping by again. I still have about eight or so more posts planned for this trip so stay tuned!

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And just for fun here are some of my other past Travel Journal posts:

Nashville, Tennessee – Girls Weekend
London, England
Estes Park, Colorado
Thailand and the Philippines
Tumon Bay, Guam
New York City – Girls Weekend
Lake Tahoe, Nevada
Antigua, Guatemala