About Us & Credits
Life in Umbria was set up by John and Liliana Tunstill. They came to Umbria over 23 years ago and set up in business buying, restoring and selling medieval country properties in the Upper Tiber Valley. Finally, they found an ancient monastery, which was crumbling into disrepair, surrounded by water and full of mud and earth, and decided to restore it to a beautiful country house, now called La Preghiera (translated “The Prayer”)!
Liliana worked for several years with Intercontinental Hotels in Montevideo, Uruguay, and successfully owned and managed Carter’s Halt, a catering establishment near St. Paul’s cathedral in London, England. Liliana works with her architect husband, John, as interior designer for Properties Umbria and also runs La Preghiera as a luxury B&B guest house.
John also had a business in central London, the Soldier Shop, a haven for collectors of lead soldiers. He has written several books on the subject and was known as “Mr Soldiers”! John is now sometimes known as “The Man Who Invented Umbria” because of his twenty-odd years of work in publicizing and promoting the area, being instrumental in providing publicity through journals and newspaper articles since the 1980’s, and for which, some years ago, he was made an honorary citizen of Montone, a breathtaking nearby town which is acclaimed as one of the ten most beautiful towns in Italy.
Liliana and John have travelled all over the world and from their experiences in various hotels, felt they wanted to offer people the kind of accommodation where guests are really welcomed in and made to feel at home, all in a luxury environment with first class service.
An Umbrian saying is “strangers are friends…as yet unmet…” and it is this proverb that guides the philosophy behind the welcoming atmosphere at La Preghiera.
In John’s words “If you could extract some pleasure from the gastronomic offerings, or the minor artistic achievements and cultural activities of this part of central Italy - the painting, the religion, the architecture, the history - or you just wish to appreciate the wonderful countryside, then probably La Preghiera is the stuff of which your dreams are made… It has been described as the ‘essence of Umbria, and a distillation of all that encompasses the spirit of this tranquil region’”.
You may also be interested in John’s collections of lead soldiers, old British films and postcards or Liliana’s lifetime collections of Gallč, Aubusson and Art Deco or the fine food and good wines of Umbria and just taking it easy…