approx 25 mins, 20km
The next big town up the Tiber, has several good museums and has a pleasant old town in which to walk around or sit in a café in the main piazza. It also has cinemas. Originally a Roman city on the Tiber, it flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Read Moreapprox 25 mins, 20km
Hosts exhibitions of contemporary art in the Rocca and has a small museum (Museo di Santa Croce) in the Piazza San Francesco, which boasts a fine Signorelli and small but well-curated shows.
Read Moreapprox 45 mins, 50km
Home to the National Museum of Umbria, one of the great painting museums of Italy, and is a wonderful town for walking, shopping and eating in. It also has a good archaeological museum with (among other things) fine Etruscan artifacts. Etruscan tombs at the Ipogeo dei Volumni are on the southern edge of the city, just off the motorway/raccordo (SS75) towards Tuscany. Notable international Jazz Festival during summer and winter, and (thanks to Perugina) a very large chocolate festival.
Read Moreapprox 1 hour, 66km
The most famous attractions are the Basilica of San Francesco and the Sacro Convento, but there are several other important churches, a Roman amphitheatre and temple, art galleries, the Monte Subasio natural reserve and the Calendimaggio festivities.
Visit Assisi Online for more info.
Read Moreapprox 1 hour, 50 km
A great medieval town with good restaurants and a wonderful funicular (funivia) ride uphill to a church overlooking the city and its valley. Its museum boasts the Eugubine tablets, a trilingual bronze text in Umbrian, Etruscan and Latin.
The town is also home to the annual Festa dei Ceri in May, which sees people race up the hilltop town while carrying statues.
Read Moreapprox 1 hour, 50km (to Tuoro)
Italy’s 4th largest lake sits on the border between Umbria and Tuscany, and makes for a lovely reminder of the Italian Lake district. The lake shore boasts medieval castle-topped towns, olive groves and cypress trees, but to best appreciate the lake, we recommend a lake crossing from Tuoro to Isola Maggiore.
Despite its name (Maggiore means larger), this island is still reasonably small, and yet incredibly picturesque. It has chapels visited by St Francis of Assisi and a couple of good lakefront fish restaurants. Park your car for the boat crossing in Tuoro, where you will also find a tour of the battle sites where Hannibal defeated the Romans.
Read Moreapprox 2 hours, 125km
The Duomo has an extraordinary façade and important Signorelli frescoes. The Etruscan necropolis is likewise well worth visiting. The Pozzo di San Patrizio (on the eastern end of Corso Cavour) is a spectacular medieval well with double spiral stairways 62 metres down to the water designed to deconflict the donkey traffic. The stairways are lit by 72 windows. Nice shopping and quite good eating. Take the funicular up to the city from the vast (free) parking near the train station.
Read Moreapprox 2 hours 30, 160km
Every year, from late May to early July, Nature puts on a beautiful spectacle on this plain in the Monti Sibillini National Park. Flowers covering an area of 5km square come into bloom framed by the Sibillini peaks, this is truly a once in a lifetime experience!
Find out more here.
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