What is an Agriturismo?

And what's the difference between an agriturismo and a hotel?

Couldn't you imagine staying here for a few nights?

When you're on Booking or Agoda (those are both affiliate links, I thought it was too perfect an opportunity to pass up) you might see hotels with "agriturismo" next to their name, or in their name, or sometimes even a category by that name. So what is it?

Simply put, an agriturismo is a portmanteau (smushing together of two words) of "agricultura" and "turismo" or, a smushing together of "agriculture" and "tourism". Even more simply put, it's a farm-stay with food.

What's the difference between an agriturismo and a hotel?

Three major details set these lodgings apart, despite the fact that they are both places you can sleep and are both places that you can [usually] eat.

First, an agriturismo is usually outside of the city, often around small towns or in the countryside. After all, it's on a farm, and there are few few farms in cities. So, you're more likely to find a hotel in a city, by comparison.

Second, where a hotel with a bed, first and foremost, an agriturismo is a farm with a restaurant attached, first and foremost.

And for the biggest difference: an agriturismo should grow/raise all of the food it cooks, whereas the hotel obviously won't. This means the cows, pigs, goats, wheat, olives, tomatoes, etc. are all grown or raised at that farm (or, in some cases, on land owned by the agriturismo but not adjacent to it, in cases where they might have an olive orchard a few kilometers away).

Tips for finding the best agriturismo

If you're reading this from outside of Italy, it can be hard to find the best agriturismo solely going by online reviews and photos, mainly because (and I do mean this lovingly) tourists rarely know where to find the best food. It's a bit like the rip-off burger place in your hometown having rave five-star reviews and you're sitting there thinking, "There's no way someone thinks that's good food." So, this is just to help you out.

First, look at the menu. I will say, this can be difficult, and that's usually a great sign. Most agriturismi have menus that change daily (sometimes weekly), depending on what's in season/what's in the kitchen.

An agriturismo should only serve food that they have a hand in growing/raising/producing. This means, if an agriturismo outside of Florence is offering seafood options, there's a good chance they aren't producing a lot of their food (while not illegal, definitely scummy). Likewise, if they have things on the menu that don't grow in Italy (like tropical fruit) then they're also a place to be avoided—or, at the very least, suspicious of.

Second, location. An agriturismo in the middle of nowhere will probably have a better menu and quality of food than one just outside of a city. Rent and taxes, especially on a large farm, can still be heavy just outside of a city, so there's a tendency to cut corners where possible. The farther outside a city you are, the cheaper it is to grow food, and so the more likely it is they're growing everything (or most things) on the menu.

In this vein, there are agriturismi on Capri, for example, but there's not a lot of easily arable land there. Most of it is already being used by citrus and olive trees. So if an agriturismi is offering a wide menu in a place that seems unlikely, this can also be a red flag.

Third, size. This is where the photos can come in handy. In our experience, the better agriturismi have smaller dining rooms, smaller kitchens, and decent-sized farms (not a large mega-farm, but also not a tiny garden in the back where they claim to produce all the food). There's a focus on serving the best possible food to a handful of people, rather than feeding the most possible people a few plates of pasta.

And as a cheeky extra, number four, dessert. Again, if you can't go by the menu, you can try to go by the photos. There are very few (I can't really think of any off the top of my head) desserts in Italy that are enjoyed year-round. The warmer months are for gelato, the cooler for pastries and chocolate. So in this vein, it will not be uncommon for dessert at an agriturismo to be fresh fruit (in the summer) or a crostata (like a pie, or tart) in the winter. Sometimes you get lucky and there's some kind of cake, or if you're really lucky, a house-made gelato. However, in our experience, desserts are often limited and almost treated as an afterthought. We once asked an agriturismo owner if he had dessert and he offered to whip up a zabaione with some Stregha and eggs, if we wanted (which we did, of course). On another occasion, the dessert was cherries, picked off the tree just outside the window. In many aspects, the Italian agriturismo approach to the dessert is their approach to all food—alter it as little as possible to let the natural flavors come through.

Should you stay in an agriturismo?

Great question, dear reader.

It highly depends.

In truth, some agriturismi put a lot of love and attention into their food and forget they have a hotel attached. In fact, around where we live, it's not uncommon for agriturismi to close their hotel portion entirely in the winter.

Darcy and I have stayed at some agriturismi that were a few steps above "camp cabin". And other times, we've stayed in highly-curated, whitewashed stone and wooden beam Architectural Digest rooms. Again, this is where photos come in. Just keep in mind that it's not uncommon for people to use old photos, or only show photos of an "example room" and not of all the rooms.

Lastly, as mentioned, agriturismi tend to be out in the country, making it hard to see the main sights of Italy. However, if you have a few nights to spare, an agriturismo in Umbria, Tuscany, or Campania is definitely the way to get.

If nothing else, we highly recommend that you eat at one, if you can.