What is an agriturismo? a farm first, a place to stay second

Agriturismo is an Italian word that joins agricoltura (farming) and turismo (tourism). It means a working farm that hosts guests: rooms or apartments, often meals, sometimes activities such as tastings, cooking classes or horse riding. The plural is agriturismi.

It is not a style of hotel. Italian law defines it as an activity carried out by farmers, using their own farm, and keeping farming as the main business.

The national framework is law 96 of 2006, and each region sets its own detailed rules. The common principles: the farm must remain a real farm, the hospitality must stay connected to and secondary to farming, and the food and drink served must come mainly from the farm itself or from local producers.

This is why an agriturismo usually has fewer rooms than a hotel, why dinner menus follow the season, and why you may wake up to tractors, vines being pruned or olives being picked.

Choose an agriturismo for space, quiet, food from the land and a host family. Expect fewer services than in a hotel: no 24-hour desk, sometimes no daily cleaning in apartments, and a drive to the nearest village. In return, many farms have a pool, a garden, and a dinner table you will remember.

Prices vary widely, from simple rooms under €100 a night for two to restored estates at several hundred euros. Breakfast is usually included; dinner, when served, is often booked the same morning.

Decide first between region and landscape: vines and cypress hills in Tuscany, masserie and trulli in Puglia, mountain farms in the Dolomites, lake views on Lake Garda. Then look at three things on each farm: whether it serves dinner, whether it has a pool, and how far it is from the nearest village. Every farm on this site shows all three.