Amber Road Tours

Our hotels and their towns

There are a variety of hotels on this tour, all chosen for their charm and friendliness, and to provide you with an experience of small town or village Italy, away from crowds and traffic while at the same time having locations within historic districts or in panoramic settings. Most occupy historic residences or buildings from earlier centuries.

Pistoia was a Roman, then Lombard town, became an independent comune in 1158 before finally succumbing to nearby Florence in the 14th century. Pistoia has a very interesting historic center and Duomo, which we will be visiting on Day 1 of the tour after your hotel arrival. The Hotel Il Convento (30 rooms, 4 star) was built in the early 1800’s by Franciscans as a monastery. It was abandoned by the friars in the mid twentieth century, bought by the Petrini family, converted into a hotel and completely remodeled in 2004. Situated in silent wooded hills 4 miles outside of the city, it has a wonderful vista of the Pistoia valley.

Pienza – incomparable, in south Tuscany, is a renaissance town, perhaps the earliest surviving example of western urban planning. Built in just three years by the famous architect Rossellino by order of native son Pope Pius II (pope 1458-1564), with designs on creating a second Vatican City and surpassing Siena in both beauty and grandeur. Pius is known as the “humanist pope”. Before ascending to the papacy he was crowned the imperial poet laureate at the court of Emperor Frederick III at Vienna. He wrote novels (racy for his time) and is the only pope to have written an autobiography. We’ll visit his “library” inside the Duomo of Siena. Pienza, known as “the ideal city”, has not changed in 500 years – it’s utterly charming. The Piccolo Hotel La Valle (14 rooms) is an elegant new structure overlooking the incomparabile Val d’Orcia.

Gubbio was originally an important pre-Roman Umbrian town. (Generally speaking, the Etruscan peoples inhabited the west side of the Tiber river in what is now Tuscany and Lazio, and the Umbrian peoples lived on the eastern side). The Romans conquered Gubbio in the 2nd century BC, – the world’s second largest surviving Roman theater here is testimony to Gubbio’s continuing Imperial importance. During the early middle ages barbarians used the superb roads left by the Romans to sweep down from the north, sacking and pillaging Gubbio numerous times. She rose again in the 11th and 12th century as a prosperous industrial city with a population of perhaps 50,000 (the largest in Europe). Today, Gubbio retains it’s medieval character. It is also known for its lively evenings - a perfect place to experience the Italian passeggiata. The Hotel Relais Ducale (30 rooms, 4 star historic) is a complex of three 15th and 16th century buildings, one of which was the guest house of Duke Ferdinand (we’ll visit his magnificent Palazzo Ducale in Urbino). The hotel is located off a narrow, winding lane just a few steps away from the Piazza Grande and has a “giardino pensile” (hanging garden) from which you can enjoy views of the town and valley.

Spoleto’s Umbrian roots date back to at least 500 BC. It came under Roman dominion in the 3rd century BC and famously repulsed an attack by the Carthaginian general Hannibal in 217 BC, after his devastating defeat of the Romans at Lake Trasimeno. During medieval times it became a powerful Lombard duchy. There is much to see in Spoleto – Roman walls, arches and theater; the casa romana (ancient home of the emperor Vespasian’s mother); the dominating papal fortress – the Rocca; the Duomo; and the remarkable 13th century aqueduct/bridge, the Ponte delle Torri – 80 meters off the valley floor and 230 meters long. The Hotel Dei Duchi (49 rooms, 4 star), recently remodeled, was constructed in the 1950’s. It has views from one side of the Roman theater and of Monte Luco on the other.

San Gimignano, originally an Etruscan settlement, became an important medieval town due to its location along the Francigena Way – the famous pilgrim route from northern Europe to Rome. It’s known as the “city of the beautiful towers”, once there were 72 (now 14). In 1353 it was overpowered by the might of Florence and was forbidden further construction. In addition, the Francigena Way was relocated – diminishing its importance. The result is that, today, San Gimignano retains its same charming 14th century appearance. The hotel La Cisterna (3 star superior) is a 13th century structure. It began as a hotel in 1917 with 7 rooms and slowly bought up adjacent properties so that now there are 50, each one different from the others. The rooms have panoramic views either overlooking the Elsa Valley or the medieval Piazza della Cisterna, the center of the town.

We stay 2 or 3 nights in each hotel. All of the rooms have private bath and are air-conditioned. Buffet breakfast is included. For further information and photos there are links to each hotel on the Tours pages of our website.