Get medieval in these hotels in ancient destinations

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Oyster.com

The 36-room Hotel Posta Marcucci is a small, family-owned hotel that provides a cozy, intimate way to enjoy the thermal springs of Bagno Vignoni. The hotel has its own thermal pools, which hotel guests and non-guests can use, and also a private indoor area for hotel guests only. The facilities date back to the 1950s, and the property has a slightly vintage, homelike atmosphere, with the advantage of a modern spa and meeting rooms. There are only 36 rooms — simple, no-frills spaces with flat-screen TVs and minibars — but they provide a great value for enjoying the surrounding village. On the walls are photos of notable hotel guests, including filmmaker Federico Fellini, while the landmark medieval pool has been visited by Saint Catherine of Siena and Lorenzo the Magnificent.

Here at Oyster, we can never get enough of bright lights, big cities, and the continuous buzz and hum of modern metropolis life. There's just something about the energy in the air that we find exhilarating.

But that doesn't mean we don't take a moment every once in a while to step back in time. And at times like these, we don't just want to soak up history – we want to live it.

Sometimes, there's nothing better than waking up in a 13th-century building and imagining how many people have woken up, celebrated, or walked the halls of the very same place — and it doesn't hurt to get to imagine it while still enjoy modern conveniences like air-conditioning and Wi-Fi.

And if you don't want to stay in a crumbling piece of history, you don't have to — and you can still get a taste of history. There are tons of preserved medieval towns and villages that have newer– even sleek and modern — hotels.

So if you want to get medieval on your vacation (in a historic kind of way, not an urban dictionary kind of way), we've got just the right spots to do it. Here are our top ten picks for hotels in ancient towns.