An essential guide to Umbria covering the region’s top attractions and hotels, plus recommendations on eating out
Assisi
A few years ago, Umbria was known, if at all, as Tuscany’s less alluring sister. Not any more: these days Italy’s “green heart” is every bit as celebrated as its more famous neighbour. The reasons are simple: the region has all Tuscany’s attributes — and a few more.
True, it doesn’t have the big set pieces of Florence and Siena, but it does has a coronet of far more intimate and easily visited hill-towns — Perugia, Assisi, Orvieto, Gubbio, Todi, Spoleto and Norcia. Each has enough to keep you busy for a day or more, and none is more than a few miles from the next, making Umbria manageable and straightforward to explore.
When you’ve exhausted these towns there’s a second tier of charming and even more intimate smaller centres, such as Montefalco, Bevagna, Spello, Trevi, Narni, Bettona, Città di Castello, Città della Pieve and more.
There’s also the same glorious pastoral scenery as Tuscany — the olive groves, vineyards and cypresstopped hills — as well as high mountain landscapes such as the Monti Sibillini that are the superior of its neighbour’s own Monte Amiata or Alpi Apuane.
Umbria is also a region where the food, wine, art, culture and architecture are the equal of any in Italy. Norcia, with its truffles, hams and cheeses, for example, is a gastronomic centre par excellence; Orvieto’s duomo is one of the country’s finest cathedrals; Spoleto’s summer festival is one of Europe’s major cultural events; and Assisi’s majestic Basilica di San Francesco contains frescoes by Giotto and others that mark a turning point in the history of Western art.
Finally, there are qualities to Umbria beyond towns, truffles or cypresses. Umbria mistica — mystical Umbria — some have called it, or “la terra dei santi”, the land of saints, after the hundreds of saints born here, including St Valentine and the two fathers of Western monasticism, St Francis and St Benedict.
It’s hard to put your finger on what sets Umbria apart — some quality to the light, a haze to the hills, a certain gentleness to landscape — but once you’ve visited you’ll understand, and wonder how this varied and beautiful region ever languished in its neighbour’s shadow.
Why go?
Umbria’s countryside is at its best in May, garlanded with flowers and spring green, and blessed with weather that is already balmy. This is less true in the mountains in the east, where the weather is not as reliable and the Monti Sibillini above Norcia are often still streaked with snow: wait until early June if you want to hike or see the Sibillini’s famous wild flowers, and those of the Piano Grande in particular.
Upland Norcia escapes the heat — and most of the crowds — that can make most of the region’s other towns hard work in July and August. Watch out for festivals and holy days, especially in Assisi (Easter is particularly busy), but don’t disdain the hill towns off season: January and February are cold, but often dry, and with so many indoor cultural attractions — galleries, churches, museums — and only locals in the restaurants, the region can be a joy to explore at this time of year.
September and October are good months in town or country, and are often drier than the spring months, though summer sun will have left Umbria’s green heart looking brown and parched.
When to go:
None of Umbria’s hilltowns should disappoint, but Todi and Spoleto are two favourites, closely followed by Montefalco and Bevagna. Assisi is pretty but busy, though the Basilica di San Francesco is unmissable. Orvieto can be crowded, but here, too, there is a standout sight in the shape of the Duomo. For the best landscapes head east, and in particular to the Valnerina region between Spoleto and Norcia, and to the Piano Grande and Sibillini mountains near the border with Le Marche.
Where to go:
To find flights, check Skyscanner or Momondo.
Getting there:
Some of the best Umbria attractions
Umbria’s capital is untypical. Where most of the region’s hilltowns are intimate, Perugia (turismo.comune.perugia.it) is big and ringed with busy roads and unlovely suburbs. That said, its historic centre is as compelling as any in Italy, filled with fine Etruscan, Roman and medieval monuments — just be prepared for lots of walking, lots of hills and hellish parking.
One of the country’s finest Gothic palaces, the Palazzo dei Priori, is home, among other treasures, to the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria (gallerianazionaleumbria.it), a superb gallery of Umbrian and other art spanning several hundred years. Also see the palace’s frescoed Collegio del Cambio; San Severo, which has work by Raphael (a pupil of the Umbrian Renaissance master Perugino); and San Pietro, one of the region’s most sumptuously decorated churches.
Assisi: Medieval and pink-stoned Assisi (visit-assisi.it), tucked enticingly on the slopes of Monte Subasio, would be a delight even without the considerable legacy of St Francis, who was born here in 1181. His burial place, the immense Basilica di San Francesco (sanfrancescoassisi.org), is filled with innovative and beautiful frescoes by Giotto, Cimabue, Simone Martini and others.
Check off other points on the St Francis trail — peaceful San Damiano, the rural Eremo delle Carceri and the Basilica di Santa Chiara — but on a short trip don’t bother with Santa Maria degli Angeli on the plain below. Admire the Romanesque Duomo (cathedral), the Roman temple façade (Tempio di Minerva) in the main Piazza del Comune, and climb to the Rocca Maggiore for sweeping views or, better still, drive over Monte Subasio towards Collepino and Spello.
One caveat: Assisi is among Italy’s most popular places of pilgrimage and can be very busy. Many visitors, though, are day-trippers — stay the night and you’ll find the streets much quieter come evening.
2
Bevagna (comune.bevagna.pg.it and prolocobevagna.it) is an exception to Umbria’s hilltop rule: a tiny serene town on the plain, gathered along a single, arrow-straight main street that was once part of a Roman road. More of the town’s Roman heritage — mosiacs and the remains of a temple and amphitheatre — can be explored on guided tours from the Museo di Bevagna.
The simple main square, Piazza Silvestri, has two of the region’s loveliest Romanesque churches: San Silvestro, from 1195, squat and dark with age; and the similarly venerable San Michele opposite, known for the wonderfully macabre gargoyles over the main doorway.
There’s not much more to the town, but tucked away in the charming, sleepy backstreets are a handful of fine hotels and restau-
3 rants that would be the envy of far larger towns.
If you have to choose one from the quartet of smaller towns in the Vale of Spoleto — Bevagna, Spello, Trevi and Montefalco — then go for the last (montefalcodoc.it or promontefalco.com). There are the views — the name means ‘Falcon’s Mount’ and the walled town has also been called the ‘Balcony of Umbria’. And there’s the wine, Sagrantino di Montefalco (consorziomontefalco.it), a high-quality red made from a grape found virtually nowhere else in the world (the sweet, or passito, version is better still). There’s also the medieval charm of the old centre: a handful of tiny lanes, one steep main street, and a stage set of a main square, Piazza del Comune.
1 Perugia:
Sagrantino di Montefalco Umbria: Above all, though, there’s the Museo Civico di San Francesco (sistemamuseo.it), one of central Italy’s best smaller galleries, centred on a superb Renaissance fresco cycle on the Life of St Francis (1452) by the Florentine Benozzo Gozzoli. Elsewhere, see more frescoes in Sant’Illuminata on Via Verdi, simple but delightful medieval works by a local artist Melanzio.
Spello (turismo.comune.spello.pg.it) looks wonderful as a distant prospect, its medieval houses ranged on terraces above the Vale of Spoleto and framed by the slopes of Monte Subasio. Within its walls, however, space is tight and cars an occasional blight. Put up with any indignity, though, to see the key sights: the vivid frescoes (1501) in Santa Maria Maggiore (smariamaggiore.com) by Pinturicchio, an Umbrian artist who also left masterpieces in Siena’s cathedral and the Sistine Chapel; and the Pinacoteca Civica Diocesana next door, a classic small-town museum filled with paintings and sculptures that anywhere but Italy would be lauded to the skies.
Elsewhere, weave around the backstreets for glimpses of Spello’s small-town charm. Also consider hiking on Monte Subasio — one marked trail starts just beyond the Bastiglia hotel and will take you all the way to Assisi with the help of the relevant Kompass map (available locally). Alternatively, drive to Collepino and then up and over Monte Subasio for some glorious views.
5
Spoleto’s profile (comunespoleto. gov.it) has been raised considerably by the Spoleto Festival (festivaldispoleto.com), now in its 60th year, one of Europe’s leading summer cultural events. Not that it needed raising, because this is a lovely hill-town — “the most romantic city I ever saw,” said Shelley: intimate, charming, urbane, and with several artistic treasures (the modern lower town, three Romanesque churches aside, is less so).
The cathedral is Umbria’s prettiest and contains a major Renaissance fresco cycle (1467) by the Florentine Fra Lippo Lippi. Nearby is
6