Some of the best Umbria attractions
Perugia: 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. 1 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 restaurants 3 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. 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. 4 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