Relais & Chateaux Hotels in Norcia

you can never (in my experience) go wrong with an R & C hotel and Palazzo Seneca was no different. it was truly excellent from our first arrival to our departure. we stayed three nights in june and ate at their amazing restaurant on one of the nights. this is a very interesting and (sadly) hard hit part of italy. i had not been there before but the location and surrounding scenery are well worth a trip off the beaten track. when we arrived in our (way too big) jeep rental (i didn't choose it-i'm not stupid-i know italian roads having lived there for 2+ years!) our gps took us in exactly the wrong way to get to the hotel. we were only across the piazza but there was no way to get there with the earthquake reconstruction and blockages. i walked to the hotel and told them where we were and they said ”no problem, we will come and get your bags and one of our people will take care of your car”. so we had our bags walked across the piazza and checked in and left them with the car keys. when we got to the room-a beautiful 2 room suite with two bathrooms- there were some artisanal beers (really good one's) and cured meats/cheeses waiting for us. check in was seamless and we loved the large room. we did have dinner at their restaurant on our second night. a magnificent meal. the woman who headed up the staff at the restaurant (she was originally from salerno and i had lived there for a couple of years so we were able to talk about that in italian towards the end of our meal) was excellent, and i think she may have been training one of her young staff that night as she supervised our service. anyway the food was outstanding and the risotto cinghiale is to die for. we don't normally eat red meat and got the vegetarian and fish option but i substituted the wild boar in for one of mine. the service, explanation, and pacing was perfect. breakfast were excellent as was the service and we loved momo from tunisia, and a couple of the other young servers who were there in the morning. also, sitting out on the back terrace and enjoying some wine or an aperol spritz is a great way to pass the time. thanks for a great stay.