Affordable, undiscovered and wonderfully rustic – this Italian escape is everything you need - Scotland on Sunday Travel

Spend a weekend in Umbria and discover a rural wonderland you won’t want to leave.

The view from Borgo Bastia Creti. Pic: Borgo Bastia Creti/PA.

I am standing in the middle of a rustic, old, Italian kitchen, feeling like a total failure. Mara – a nonna who is teaching me how to cook Italian food – is shaking her head and wafting my disc of freshly-made pasta at me, tutting and muttering. She doesn’t speak a word of English, but Beatrice, who is translating, reveals I’ve used too much flour. My pasta is too hard and no longer any use for ravioli – it is only good enough for tagliatelle. The shame is real.

Thankfully, slurping some delicious red wine and licking the spoon from the-best-tiramisu-I-have-ever-tasted-in-my-life soon takes the edge off.

Mara and her co-chefs, Edoardo and Emma, arrive in our three-bedroom cottage in Borgo Bastia Creti, a small, 14th-century resort in Umbria – right in the middle of Italy and close to the Tuscan border.

Montone, Umbria. Pic: Claire Spreadbury/PA.

I listen to the crackle of logs sparking in the ginormous fireplace, as Italian chatter gathers speed and volume in the kitchen. Together, we make ricotta and spinach ravioli in a sage, butter and olive oil sauce, tagliatelle in a buttery tomato sauce (“the butter makes it better,” Emma says), and proper Italian tiramisu, made with six simple ingredients, no cream, and all about the eggs and lots of whisking – an ingredient often missed out of recipes entirely at home.

After a couple of hours of hard work (making pasta is much more difficult than I thought it would be), we sit down to our feast, supplemented with wine and an additional starter of antipasto, because two courses of pasta and a large, rich dessert apparently isn’t enough. Well, we are in Italy.

Organising activities is something they specialise in at this family-run hamlet. Now owned by 30-something twins, Roberto and Veruschka Wirth, who also own Rome’s five star luxury hotel, Hassler Roma, this used to be the home of their grandma. If pasta making isn’t your thing (€75/£65pp), they can organise dinners (€45/£40pp), yoga €40/£35pp), massage (€90/£78pp), learning Italian (€50/£43pp per hour), wine tasting €50/£43pp), truffle hunting (from €50/£43pp) – pretty much anything you fancy. There are tennis courts, a pool, and boule available, too.

The resort, with only 13 bedrooms, is an hour’s drive from the airport, past lush vineyards, pretty shuttered stone buildings and undulating green hills. This part of Italy feels so authentic – rustic, real and undiscovered, although it’s certainly starting to garner interest.

Borgo Bastia Creti. Pic: Borgo Bastia Creti/PA.

According to Roberto, Antognolla has one of the most beautiful golf courses in Italy and is just over half an hour away. Costello, a 15-minute drive, is known for its historic landmarks and beautiful churches, and swanky hotel brand Six Senses are opening up nearby, too.

Puffs of white cloud hang low in the Umbrian hills as we head into another nearby village, Montone. A 30-minute drive away, only 1,500 people live here, yet it’s a celebrity favourite. Stanley Tucci was given the keys of the city at last year’s film festival, which takes place every year. And after eating lunch at L’Antica Osteria di Montone, the owner regales us with tales of visits by Cameron Diaz, Dan Levy and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Rumour has it, Gwyneth Paltrow stays on the Reschio estate, about 30 minutes away.

“Italy is full of places that are still undiscovered,” says Roberto, “and people are looking for quieter, more authentic places now.”