My intention is to do a series of thoughts about places we have visited in Umbria and further afield. My aim is to provide some information about the site, what is in the area and what is worth visiting further afield. Inevitably this will reflect the sort of things I like doing. So expect plenty of posts about art galleries, music, wonderful old buildings, good places to eat in the area and walks up into the hills behind Valliano. If I can persuade my wife to blog, then expect shopping walking and cycling to feature rather more heavily.
If you have any comments on this part of the site or if you want to let people know about things that you have found, do get in touch with me (nrobertson46@hotmail.co.uk) and I will add comments into a subsequent update of the website.
I have done this part in three sections
First is really how to get to/from our house.
Then I have put the three nearest towns, all of which we have visited regularly.
Finally, if you are feeling more adventurous, I have listed, in alphabetical order, the other places we have visited.
Please note that the information below is dated from when we first visited each place. Naturally we have continued to go back many times since so where we have found things have changed, I have either updated or put a subsequent entry for the same site.
Part I
How to get to our house from Promano
We thought it would be helpful to do a detailed description of the journey up to the house from Promano in the valley to our house
Mind you, if you have tried the What3Words App, the words diehard.enjoys.trout will get you there too. https://what3words.com if you are interested in trying the app.
Starting at 0000 and the kilometer is saying 0 km.
If you go through Promano with the Co-op café and supermarket shop on your left-hand side then on your left-hand side past the (very useful and friendly petrol station/garage (on your left-hand side) you keep following the main road (which is going towards Citta de Castello although that is not signed).
You will be driving only a three or four minutes before the right hand turn you are looking for will come up
There is the Post Office on the right-hand side and then you keep going on main road until you come to a right-hand turn which is quite narrow. It is about a kilometre beyond where the Promano supermarket is. There is a 50km a hour sign on the right-hand side. The road is going down a slight hill and the easiest way to recognise that you are coming up to the turn off is the Fattoria Bianchini building ahead of you on the left. the Bianchini name is painted on the factory wall facing you as you come down the road. The actual factory is just AFTER the turn you are looking for on the right hand side of the road. There is also a small blue sign to Marchigliano and Felceto on a small blue sign on the right-hand side. This marks the turn you are looking for.
The road itself that you are turning into is quite narrow and is indentified as Tommaso Marinetti.
You then follow the road that you have joined, bend round to the right immediately, do not go straight ahead and the road starts to climb and almost immediately you start to move out of the inhabited area. After about 100 yards the road bends around to the left, past a 50km an hour sign, although there is not much chance of you doing more than that on the state of these roads.
After that you stay on this road all the way up to the turn to our house. It is that simple (and the best advice I can give is that basically if in doubt keep following the road you are on.
The road takes you up between a number of houses interspersed with fields. Arter about 2km there is a green refuse recycling unit on your right.
At the 3km mark also you leave the houses behind and it is fields and then trees on either side of the road. The road will drop down at various points before rising again. So do not worry if the road is going down and you know you are meant to be going up.
At the 4km mark the road bends around to the left. It looks like a fork in the road but the exit to the right is a private drive. There is a farm house on the right and it is extremely easy to follow the road around to the right because it is not immediately apparent which one is the main road. Anyway it is the road on the left that you want and if you go wrong you will pretty quickly realise your mistake. Immediately after the farm, if you take a left-hand turn, the road will drop down quite steeply and bend around to the left.
There is then a small bridge that you go over before the road starts to climb up again. For about 400 yards after the bridge there is a deserted farm house on the right-hand side and then the road bends around to the left which takes you even further uphill.
At the 5km mark there is a sign on the left in brown to Capanneto which you do not take and you keep going straight ahead. You then end up on the ridge of the hill with the land dropping away either side of you.
At the 5 and a bit Km mark, our house is visible on the hillside opposite you straight ahead.
At the 6km mark there is a track off on the left-hand side of the main tarmac road goes around to the right. This is a sign that you are close to the turn off for Valliano and no more than a minute or two away from turning left, onto our white road.
The road bends around to the left (fragile crash barrier on the right-hand side followed by a warning sign after you have made it round the corner – this is Italy of course).
The road then curves around to the right and rises slightly and there is a line of telegraph poles crossing the road. This is a sign that you are at the turn left for Valliano. The time is now 12 minutes after starting and the milometer says 7 km.
The turn into the road to Valliano you take is left. There are some new vines on the right-hand side and grass field on the left. The road up to Valliano is unpaved and so is stone/earth etc.
If you miss the turn and go on past it, you will see the field of olives immediately after it on your left hand side. The road bends around to the right and at the 8km mark there is a large yellow crane parked in a lay by that starts to drop fairly consistently. At 9km you pass a house on the left-hand side with grey gates and an ivy hedge either side. There is a space for turning the car around on the right-hand side. Use it!
If you spend time driving around you will realise that there are various ways of getting down to the valley. The route we have given you here is the easiest to describe, but if you come out of our white road and turn left, you can find your way down to the valley but taking a right hand turn and following your nose.
The White Road up to Valliano takes 3 minutes to drive and the steepest bit is the bit at the very start of the drive. It takes about 3 minutes driving to get to the gates to our house There is one large unoccupied house on the right-hand side after a minute. The road drops down hill and Valliano is facing your on left-hand side on the small hill opposite. There is a warehouse on the right-hand side just before our gates You go left past the warehouse and then the gates Valliano are about 50 yards down on the left-hand side. You really can’t miss them.
The parking space is round the side of the front house, and Valliano Chiesa is the building behind it.
Time for a drink to celebrate your arrival.
Perugia Airport/Valliano
Perugia Airport to Valliano
The airport in Perugia is very convenient for getting to and from Valliano. The drive takes about 40 minutes, assuming the traffic is clear, and by and large it always has been when we have been visiting.
Getting from Perugia to Valliano is fairly easy. The airport is relatively small and so, apart from sometimes a queue for the hire cars, it all functions fairly efficiently.
If you have a sat nav in your hire car or you are using iPhones etc then obviously be guided by them. I suggest you set the Sat Nav for Promano, which will take you up the E45 past Perugia itself, and then north, towards Cesena Nord (which is where the E45 heads). Once you turn off at Promano follow the directions elsewhere in this blog to get to Valliano
If you are free-spirited enough to believe you don’t need sat nav, then good luck. We tend to take the first right out of the airport as soon as we leave the airport car park and that takes us across country to join the E45. Join E45 heading for Cesena Nord then stay on that for about 25 minutes or so, and take Promano exit
That then takes you around the side of Perugia on the way to Promano where you leave the E45 and start the drive up to the hills to reach Valliano.
Valliano to Perugia Airport
The journey takes no more than 40 minutes in our experience but there is one bit where it is easy to miss the turn off if you are not using sat nav, so allow sufficient time. It is better signed than it used to be however
Two points to watch out for if you are going to the airport with a hire car and you need to ensure it has a full tank of petrol.
The last petrol station is about 2km after the Ponte Felcetto exit. It is 24 hour opening. Overall we reckon that the petrol station is about 50km after leaving Valliano and probably about 10 minutes before you get to the airport. That probably means you can calculate our average driving speed down the E45….
Secondly, if you are heading to the airport from Valliano the turn off to the airport comes up without warning. The signs to the airport off the E45 are much better than they sued to be. Originally they did not actually mention the fact that it is the airport junction, but they have corrected that. You need to be in the right-hand lane to turn effectively right and off the E45.
The sign immediately before the exit to the airport, is signed to Spoletto and Fogliono. so that is your warning.
We suggest that you do not set your sat nav for Sant’ Egidio (the airport name) because that is the village name (we think) for the village near the airport and you end up wandering around backstreets of a small village overlooking the airport.
And in case you are interested, Sant’ Egidio is Saint Giles. And if you check out Sant’ Egidio on line it is best known now as the name of a Catholic lay community which is represented in 73 countries and which, amongst other impressive achievements, brokered an end to the civil war in Mozambique. Shout out for the Sant’ Egidians….
Activities near Valliano
I am not a cyclist so this is definitely from the perspective of someone who watches someone else cycle. But there are lots of good hill cycling around Valliano. My wife has found that a road bike is not brilliant as some of the roads are quite rough or not brilliant maintained. She uses a hybrid bike.
The paths that run up from the house into the hills would probably make good cycling for off road bikes and once up into the hills the white roads are perfectly suited to cycling.
We have found a cycle path along the Tiber river which is accessible from the road. If you go down to Promano but turn right (towards Citta – without going on to E45, you come to Cinquemiglia roundabout (just after the other Co op we sometimes use) Turn left at the roundabout and keep heading straight ahead (past Cornetto). When you come to the river bridge there is a track on the right that takes you down to a car park and miles of bike tracks.
You can hire bikes locally and/or get a bike repaired We use Bikeland snc – Via Morandi 16, 06012 Città di Castello Very helpful and speak enough English Other options are available….
Walking
Remember to take water!
Be careful about working up in the hills on Sunday mornings. Frequently the hunters will be out (they often go out the night before and sit up in the hides you will see in the hills behind us) and you could end up blundering through hides etc (like I did once).
There are miles and miles of walks from the house and we have not begun to try any other walks from other locations. Top tip Get the Viewranger App for your phone. Really useful showing maps of the area, paths etc. I tried to do it by sense of direction only which can result in some quite lengthy detours. And you can record your routes if you want.
If you go past the little pond near our garden gate (just beyond our house main gate, on the right hand side) that will take you down into the valley. You can walk along the valley and come back out onto the road which will bring you back to Valliano. It is about a two and a half hour walk. It is a bit of a scramble on the way down to the valley but once you are there it is lovely
We did a walk from Migiamo up Monte Tezio. Fantastic views from the top. It took about 90 minutes from where we parked but I do not think we went the most direct way. It is quite steep in places so it is definitely a good walk. It was very hot on the day we went up the hill but the views are definitely worth it. My best advice is to ignore the private road signs once you start walking. There is not a lot of parking space in the village however so you may need to choose your moment. There are undoubtedly other ways up Monte Tezio because I did the walk a few years back with someone else by a different walk, but if you are looking for an energetic walk this is a good one.
For those who want to walk on the level, there is a long walk which goes from at least Citta di castello to Umbertide alongside the Tevere/tiber. It is marked as Itinerario ciclabile (brown signs) and the easiest place to join it is by driving through Cornetto, (i.e turning of the Promano Citta di Castello back route) and about two minutes beyond Cornetto there is a bridge over the river. Before you get to it, there a car park on the left of the bridge, with 12k walks in both directions. It is very pleasant and partly shaded which can be a relief in the heat of the summer. We did a stretch of the walk from Umbertide away from Citta so it clearly goes some way further than Citta di Castello, though a portion of it was on road, diverging from the river. Mind you, I did see my first kingfisher, and there were herons, so plenty to see.
Part 2 The places closest to us to visit
Citta di Castello
(26/8/16)
It takes about 20 minutes to drive along the back roads from Valliano to Citta di Castello. Assuming you come down the route that leads you to the Bianchini factory (i.e turning right at the end of the white road down from our property), at the point you reach the main road running parallel to the E45 (when you would turn left to go to the Promano supermarket and the bar), you turn right. You can chose to go on the E45 heading north but the back route is quicker.
We parked in Citta somewhere off Viale Vittori but looking at the guide book there is a pretty good car park near the Duomo. But having parked where we did it took about 10 minutes walk to get towards the main square and it is all completely on the level. So it is a good place to visit if you have anyone with any restricted mobility. And being on the level is pretty much a unique attribute for any town we have visited near here. Note that now (august 2023) that car park is much smaller space. There is penty of parking and the best advice is to follow the old city walls round (outside them- not inside them) till you come across the car parks that line the road going round the city walls. We tend to use one in Via del popolo. Which has escalators going up to the park opposite the front of the Duomo. They are tiny escalaotors but it is worth knowing that they are there. Opposite the car park is a good map of the City with a list of the various things to see and where they are located.
The Duomo is, well, it is ok. To my untrained eye it did not look anything particularly special. It is worth a visit.
However next door is the Museo del Duomo which has lots of pictures of Saint Sebastian and in one of the first rooms a map of the Diocesan areas of Umbria in the 13th and 14th centuries. We were delighted to see Valliano is marked in larger letters so clearly Valliano was a reasonably important site then. Surprising to think that there were enough people living locally to support a church where we are.
We acquired a couple of the posters for the Museo because they are actually of that particular bit of the map. I will post a copy of the extract from the map with this blog if I remember to do so.
We then walked back to Pinacotecca Communale which is surprisingly hard to find. If you are going to visit Pinacotecca Communale specifically, there is car parking just outside the city walls so it would be about a three minute walk from there. The exhibition itself is well worth a visit. You start by going out to the formal garden area predominately to admire the façade of the gallery. I will do a post on the contents of the gallery another day.
The central square, as you come into Citta, has a not very well signposted pedestrian precinct in effect on the left-hand of the square if you were standing facing the direction which would take you down towards the Duomo. There are lots of surprisingly smart shops down there. The thing about Citta is that it is laid out in a seemingly haphazard fashion. If you do not know the shop is there then you will never find it. So it is definitely worth wandering around, even through some of the back streets to see what you can find in terms of restaurants, shops etc.
(26/11/2016)
Found our way to the Conad supermarket which had been recommended to us. Mid-size supermarket but fairly well stocked in the Castello Centro Commerciale, which is on the other side of Citta di Castello from Promano. It seems to be open throughout the day and has a mix of other shops. It is located in the Viale Bruno. Don’t forget to take some loose change firstly for the supermarket trolleys and secondly for the nice guys who will offer to push your trolley back to the car, unload it and take your trolley back to the trolley queue (in return of course for keeping your Euro coin in the trolley).
We had a lovely lunch in Citta at L’accademia Hostaria in Via di Modello. Very friendly and good food. It is just past the centre square taking the right-hand fork towards the cathedral square and then it is on the left-hand side just as you enter the area around the cathedral. It is well worth a visit.
(16/04/17)
We visited Citta di Castello on Easter Sunday. Parked at the car park just outside the city walls slightly to the left of the cathedral itself as you look at the Centro Storico but it was only five minutes or so walk to the Duomo Plaza.
The plaza itself was pretty much deserted apart from one restaurant and one coffee shop which was open where we had lunch. There was a service going on at the cathedral so we stood to one side and listened to the service for a few minutes. The church itself was completely full and standing room only (as they say on South West trains) so clearly the church was doing good business today.
We then walked up to the main square where there was the Italian equivalent of a car boot sale, lots of equipment/tools/books/old vinyl and general tat. Great fun to wander around it. I bought a CD and two books (art) so a bit of a hit for me at least.
Then we went back up to the cathedral museum to show those of our party, who had not previously visited it, the map of the Umbrian Dioceses in 13th and 14th century. We found that there is actually a bit more to the museum than we had realised the first time round. In Sala 1 the chest lid (built of Silver) was full of fantastic details and the crook (which is the other main exhibit in the museum) has a beautifully fashioned angel supporting the curve of the crook with hand expression which says he could do support all of this with one finger if he was so minded.
Upstairs last time we had only got to the concert room. It is the best of the paintings in there with a lovely Pinturicchio ( the middle picture on the far wall). No signs there to draw attention to the painting but it is quite beautiful. Beyond that there is a corridor off to the left with a few more paintings and some ecclesiastical robes I think. Not really anything of particular interest and then a lift that does not work if you try to call it so you end up turning around and going back out the way you came in.
We had lunch at the restaurant on the left-hand edge of the square to the left of the cathedral (if you are facing the cathedral’s main entrance). We were admiring the irregular windows in the cathedral wall and noticed how many had been blocked up. Probably contributing to the gloom of the interior of the church to my way of thinking.
I am pleased (in a very nerdy and Scottish sort of way I accept) to discover there is a link between St Columba and the bread they serve here at Easter time and which we ate yesterday (Colomba Pasquale).
I tried to visit Santa Maria Delle Grazie which was shut. It does have a very odd double door for the main entrance for which only one panel seems to open.
I also tried to visit San Michele Angelo but both were shut. I stopped in a tiny cappuccine chapel opposite the main Santa Maria because it was being used for a service so I could not do much other than glance round it.
We then walked down to Sant Francesco which was deserted. Pleasant but has a sort of concrete décor that some churches over here have. There is a lovely Rafael hanging on the left-hand wall but sadly it is a copy of the original which was taken by a Napoleonic General and then sold on.
I made the acquaintance of the Italian word “Giganti grafico” which assume means it has been copied in some way. The Cappella Vitelli in the church was done by Vasari with some lovely wood panels down the sides, the one of them is sufficiently blurred to look like a image out of the Karma Sutra. Maybe it was the oysters for lunch.
In Citta everything is small and individual shops etc so I passed a lovely little Galleria De Lata in the Via Del Albizzin. Worth a detour and then found my way back to the music store that I had located a couple of years ago (which is just off Via Sant Antonio and then down the passageway on the right). Very well stocked for playing music rather than buying CD’s etc. I checked in August 2023 and it is still there, with a sign above the little passage way that says “tutta musica” to point the way.
Something to share with you is that I have learnt that the Italian for guitar pic is ….
“guitar pic”.
I went into the shop with my rudimentary Italian and asked if the owner spoke English. He did not. So we had 10 minutes of trying to find the word for the guitar pic before we got to the right word. I guess I won’t forget it again.
I had a very good coffee at the bar, Gelatera de Corso, which is on the your left as you come from the music shop and reach the main square.
There is also a very good book shop in the main square. I can’t remember the name but think it is Libreria Paci. Has some English books if you want, maps and generally worth a visit.
As you come into the main square, and assuming that straight ahead would take you towards the cathedral, if you turn left instead it is a pedestrian area, Corso Vittorio Emmanuele. Lots of little shops along the way. No chain stores anything like that. As I say I suspect you will have to know what is where to know how to enjoy Citta.
Towards the far end of the Corso VE I looked into the Chiesa Santa Maria Maggiore which was empty and pretty schizophrenic as a church. On the left-hand side closest to the main doors there are what looked like chalk drawings in the alcoves. They may have had some rather better drawings on the right-hand side) and then a lovely fresco over the chapel on the left-hand side of the alter. No information of course and the internet just says it is from the 15th century. On the right hand side of the altar is a somewhat unfortunate carving? of I assume Jesus in side a glass box. With the lighting on it looks like Jesus in a Fish tank. Which would make for a more memorable name for the church The Church of Jesus in a Fish Tank, which would be sure to pack in the tourists.
If you fancy some grandiose modern Italian art the Museo Burri is worth a trip, just outside the City walls. It is house in the ex drying sheds for the tobacco leaves so these gigantic sheds now house 15 foot squares painted completely in black. Yes, there is more to it than that, but it is quite the experience to go round, whether you are awestruck or dumbfounded.
August 2023
I was back again doing a trip on my own to Citta. The Pinacotecca has been rehung. There were a lot of reproductions of Luca Signorelli paintings, so it has a bit more to it than before. The main entrance has now moved to the other side of the plot of land. It is signposted quite well but I think it is off Via San Florido
Montone
What can I say about our neighbouring hilltop town?
It takes about 15 minutes to drive from our house. There are some particularly zigzagging bends and indeed you go past the house that we nearly bought before buying Valliano and that, lets face it, turned out seriously for the best. You come down our white track and either go down into Promano, past the Coop and stay right for about 3 minutes (ie not joining the E45) and you will see a sign off to the left which takes you up to Montone). The alternative is to turn left at the end of the white track and then follow the road down that side, which will take you down into the valley and up to Montone that way. The second route is quicker but maybe you should use a sat nav or map the first time you go that way.
Montone is said by a guide book (Italian Travel) to be one of the most beautiful villages in Italy. Whether you agree or disagree with that assessment, it has got to be worth a visit, bearing in mind just how close it is.
It is possible to cycle from our house to Montone. My wife did it and is very proud of that fact. She tends to mention it to guests quite a lot. However, I do not think I would recommend it unless you are seriously fit (like she is) or of a particular masochistic tendency. She has also done the walk to Montone, which took her about 2 hours 15, but she walked up the back route to Montone as the walk up the main road itself would be quite a challenge given the number of cars on any given day.
We have now visited Montone so many times I reckon it easily qualifies as our most frequented place in Italy. When we first came to the area we stayed in one of the hotels in town, La Locanda del Capitano. It was a perfectly reasonable hotel although I do remember the beds were pretty uncomfortable. But since we have not stayed there for 7 or 8 years now, the beds might have improved.
Our first local meal was in Montone. We sat and had an evening meal in the small town square with kids playing football against the neighbouring wall. There is a sun dial on the side of the building behind as you enter into the main square which is always at least an hour out. It also looks to me like the most least likely place to put a sun dial although of course it is possible that some of the buildings have grown up around the original building.
Parking in Montone is just outside the city walls. It is a one way system and you go up around the city walls to the left and can effectively drive right to the top (still outside the city walls) to a car park at the very top of the hill. This does get quite busy. We tend to park just after you have met the walls because there is an entrance at the lower of the town which takes you into the main square.
In the very small square there is a paper shop on the left hand side. There is also a tourist information place and a very good restaurant, L’Osteria Antica.
The other restaurant which we have visited many times is Il Tipico which is run by Paolo who is a great host with a real passion for all food and drink. You get to it by crossing the town square which has a sort of crossroads at the far side of it, and going straight ahead up the hill. It is about one minutes walk up the hill on the left hand side. I remember he gave us some free honey the first time we ate there.
The first time we visited we were the only people in there on a cold and wet February evening and he looked after us so well that we have been back many times and never disappointed. All the produce is locally sourced from Umbria. Which means no gin and tonics but it is hard to think of any other drawbacks to the restaurant. You can eat inside, which is a plan in February definitely, or outside in the Piazetti de la Rosa, which is a passageway just opposite the entrance to the restaurant. On one occasion we were actually able to eat in the main square. They had a single table overlooking the main square for our party of 10. The table is often not there but in the height of summer you may get lucky.
If you are back at the cross roads there is a road on the left, which has a general food store bread etc and is a good source for stocking up if you are in the town.
The place we tend to go for coffees is a shop facing as you go into the square if you park and come into it through the lower entrance, ie it is immediately to the right of the road leading up Il Tipico.
The square itself is called Piazza Braccio Fortebraccio which translates as Mr Arm Strongarm. I guess his life path as a condottiere was mapped out from the start. A bit like the doctor who treated President Garfield after he was shot, who was called Doctor Willard Bliss, with Doctor being his actual first name. Say hello to nominative determinism.
The coffee shop does lovely biscuits, Occhio di Bue Biscotti. Whilst we were sitting at the coffee shop on one occasion we got talking to two English women. One of whom lives in the village permanently and one of whom is a regular visitor there. There is apparently a little supermarket (Macellarie) if you turn right at the crossing rather than going straight ahead to Il Tipico down on the right there is a lovely local bakery – we have not tried this out yet but please let us know if you do.
There is a surprising amount going on in Montone. On one occasion we visited at random, there was an open air film being shown in the town square – it was part of a documentary film festival, which I think we were told, Terry Gilliam hosts. On another occasion when we arrived in August there was an unadvertised classical music festival (honouring France I think) which was taking place in various locations near to Montone (and indeed may have been in Montone itself).
There is a food festival in November I think too (we have not visited it) but it is definitely worth keeping an eye out for adverts on notice boards etc. There is far more of this type of advertising and much less on line in Italy. Another place to keep your eyes open is the airport. We lucked into the Trasimeno music festival one summer.
If you walk up the hill past the Il Tipico restaurant you come to the top of one of the hills in Montone. It is not the only one but it does have particularly fine views. La Rocca, Fortebraçcios Castle (which is just a shell now) is really more of a tower than anything else. It is worth the climb up the hill to see it. If you do park at the top of the town it is at the level of the castle. Either way it will not take you very long to admire the views.
There is another good restaurant at the top of the town with steps going down to it from the ground in front of La Rocca. Can’t remember its name at this point, but it is well worth trying. (Erba Luna? I think?) We only found it recently so have only eaten there a couple of times.
On the way up to La Rocca from the town square is Chiesa di Santa Croce which has the festival of the La Donazione della Santa Spina (sacred thorn). The sacred thorn is housed in the convent next door and it gets displayed during the festival which, last year, was 14 to 21 August. It is about three quarters of the way up from the centre square to La Rocca. The church seems to be open the whole time and I visited on a couple of occasions. Apart from noticing a replica/knock-off of the Last Supper ((from recollection in a chapel on the right-hand side) there is nothing much to see in the church itself.
I have also managed to visit the Pinacoteca Comunale di san Francesco. This is only open from 10am to 1pm Friday to Sunday each week. It actually shuts at around 12.45pm, in my experience, if nobody else has arrived. The best bit is undoubtedly the church itself. The guide book said that it is in poor condition, which is true, but you can still see how beautiful it must have been. The rest of the museum is well worth visiting but a weird mishmash of art (there are a couple of good pictures), ethnographic museum featuring African art and a number of model planes (no I do not know either). It is definitely worth a visit. It may not be worth two visits.
During one of our summer visits we noticed that the town is divided up into three zones each of which have their own flags decorating their particular part of the territory and they compete together. The notices said that events included putting on plays and participating in tournaments during the festival. When we went back a couple of days later the scores for all the events were posted on various shop windows. It might be worth going to watch what happens. I do like the idea of putting on competitive plays. It would make for a considerably better Oscar ceremony if those up for awards had to put on a play, or declaim a speech, and then the audience got to vote.
March 2018
We visited the Pinacoteca museum today. Sadly the ethnographic museum is shut at the moment so, if model planes in ethnographic museums are your thing, you will need to look further afield.
December 2018
We came here for lunch and ate at the restaurant on the left hand side of the square (L’antica Osteria) as you come in. We have always eaten outside in the town square but because the weather was too cold to eat out, we had a meal inside. There is a large indoor room for the restaurant at the back with lovely views out over the town walls. Worth remembering if the weather is too wet or cold and you want to eat out somewhere.
Summer 2021
We have now visited Montone so often that it really does feel like “our” local town. We even get recognised when we turn up each year in the coffee shop in the main square. We visited Alunni Alberto shop just off the main square walking towards Ristorante del Verziere. Which has various designs in iron for sale. Worth a look if you are passing.
We also found our way to the Blasi vineyard (Loc San Benedetto, Via Case Sparse 64 to try some local wines. Very drinkable and we were made to feel very welcome indeed. They do formal winetasting events but we just turned up to buy wine and were given various samples to try.
Il Mugnaio Summer 2022
A new find in Montone. This is the coffee shop/pizza restaurant at the bottom of the city walls in Montone, as you drive up to the town. It is on Via A Bologni if you want an address. It does excellent coffee and pastries (good for a morning treat) and also lovely slices of pizza at lunchtime which you can eat open air on the other side of the road from the coffee shop, assuming the weather is good enough, or inside if it is not. Highly recommended if you want a light lunch out. They have an interesting collection of trophies above the counter but I have not yet got round to asking them what they relate to.
Also this summer (2022) while we were in Montone, on Saturday evening ((20 August 2022) we were lucky enough to stumble upon the procession and ceremony for the award to the district of the town which had come out top in the annual competition. It is definitely worth trying to catch this event if you are in the area, although it did mean that all of the restaurants were fully booked out, apart from L’erba Luna at the top of the hill. I can confirm that the winner was Porta del Monte, and that the competition featured archery and mediaeval representation (I have no idea what this entails). The event lasted about half an hour, from about 9 PM and I strongly suspect there was a lot of partying afterwards. Scores for the competition are posted on the door of one of the commune’s properties in the main Fortebraccio square.
Umbertide
This is about 15 to 20 minutes drive from Valliano but instead of turning right at Promano to go to Citta, you are in effect turning left towards Perugia. Again you can turn down and join the E45 but we prefer to take the back route which is more scenic, and frankly it can get boring going up and down the E45 every time you want to go anywhere.
Timewise the back route is probably as quick as the motorway. The back route is reached by turning left at Bianchini, past the supermarket and then following the road as it bends round to the right under a bridge (The E45 goes over head), and then, when the road forks about 40 yards further on, you take the right fork, (when the left one will take you onto the E45. You pass a petrol station on right and Nocinarte (good for lunch) on left immediately after you have taken that fork.
There is another way up to our house just before you get to Nocinarte, but let’s not get too ambitious (though follow it if your Sat Nav suggests it).
You arrive at Umbertide you turn left to head into the area next to the old city walls.
When you turn left you will pass a couple of mini roundabouts and into the big square on the other side of the town’s moat (now dry). Umbertide is sufficiently small that everything in the centre is within a maximum of 10 minutes walk.
Parking is usually fine in the town square which is just outside the old walls of the centre. We have been there on a couple of occasions when there has been a market day and each time you can easily find somewhere to park on the side roads just off the town square.
The market is on a Thursday and is well worth a visit. The tat element is located in the town square outside the old walls where you usually park. If you walk across the moat and through the town walls then the market continues in the smaller square just inside the walls.
When we came there was some good stuff including some lovely looking cheeses that I coveted and flowers (which my wife coveted). There was a lovely little book stall selling very cheap second hand books for charity €1 for two paperbacks. Lots of cheap English books if you need some reading material It was all for the benefit of The Dogs Trust. I noted the last time we went back to Umbertide that the book store has now got a permanent shop. Just before you get into the central square you turn right and there is an adjacent small square and the book store is off that. It was signed fairly clearly, but it is helpful to know if you run out of reading material. The two women in there were very friendly and happy to chat when I went in there.(update by 2021 it had moved again to premises off the main square tin a passageway leading off on the left from the main square where you enter.
The restaurant on the right-hand side of the square in the old town as you come through the walls does lovely croissants.
I briefly visited the Santa Maria Della Reggia (the round church next to the place where we normally park. It is lovely. Two middle-aged black women were praying intently when I popped in so I was a bit wary of wandering round too obviously. An old man showed me where I could find a pamphlet with a guide to the church. I would have put an offering into the box to say thank you but there was no box or charity collection thing that I could see.
24 June 2017
We found the local (and quite impressive) Co-op today in Umbertide. It is on Via Rodolfo Morando. It was open 9.30am to 8pm Monday to Saturday. I do not know about the Sunday opening hours. We had lunch a new restaurant (i.e. one we had not eaten at before) off the main square – Locanda Appennino. Had pasta (not very hot) pizza (properly amazing) and a basic salad. Definitely worth checking it out again. It is in Via De Grilli.
Summer 2022
Menchetti coffee shop
This is a relatively new find, recommended to us by friends in the area. If you are driving the back route into Umbertide, past Niccione for example, as you come into Umbertide, just before the level crossing on your right, there is a small parade of shops and a garage. One of the shops is this excellent coffee shop. Highly recommended for morning coffee/pastries and the large comfortable chairs out in the garden back where it would be quite easy to spend a long slow morning sunshine.
On the outskirts of Umbertide is the Cantine Blasi, which sells lovely red, white and rose wines. We have visited there several times and they always very hospitable and happy to allow some impromptu wine tasting. The link to the website is www.blasicantina.it. Tel No 393533917982 If you do visit them, they are the second building as you go through the property gates. The first building is a hotel. Do not worry if the wine shop looks shut. There is a buzzer on the outside wall, next to the entrance to the shop that you can press, if they are working elsewhere and someone will come and find you.
Part 3 Further afield
Arezzo
27/8/16
It takes about an hour to drive from Valliano to Arezzo. Broadly speaking you go via Citta di Castello and then turn left across country. The journey is fine but nothing particularly noteworthy on route.
I ended up parking near the Archaeological museum. To be honest, I think this was probably a mistake. The parking was for a maximum of two hours. My guide book, the Rough Guide to Tuscany and Umbria was worse than useless for finding somewhere to park. Be warned! It shows the ice cream parlours in Arezzo, but not the car parks. When I went online subsequently there does look to be a fair amount of car parks nearby and indeed I think they are €3 for the day. I therefore think if you aim for the bottom of the Corso Italia you will not go wrong when it comes to car park spaces.
Walking up Corso Italia will take you up through the old town. It is a relatively gentle climb up to Casa San Francesco but after that the Duomo itself is a steep climb further on. Be warned the visiting times in the Rough Guide are now incorrect. The cathedral was shut and so was the museum of modern arts. The shops mostly seemed to be shut in Arezzo between 1/1.30pm and 3/3.30pm.
The church of San Francesco is a bit frustrating to be honest. It is half way up the Corso Italia and a bit off to the left. It is a fairly large and quite light building and most of the walls, apart from the choir of the church (which is at the far end of the church) if you coming through the main door. There are remnants of frescos covering the side walls but they are isolated and only small pieces remain. If you think of a jigsaw which no one has completed and with the pieces spread out over a wide area you would have some sort of idea of the effect.
The choir at the end by Piero Della Francesca is fabulous. I also think it is impossible to photograph or certainly it was beyond my capabilities. Send me copies if you manage to do better than I did! It has either suffered less from the damage done to the other frescos or it has been restored. I do not know which. From the noise made by a crying baby in the side chapel while I was visiting I can certainly vouch for the fact that the cathedral has (sadly) excellent acoustics. In front of the choir hangs a crucifixion which looks very old. It does not obscure or detract from the frescos behind it, it rather adds to the overall impression.
I then visited the Casa di Giorgio Vasari (be careful the guidebook map shows the Loggia di Vasari – which is a different building). The Casa di Giorgio Vasari is about two minutes walk from the cathedral which in turn is about 10 minutes from church San Francesco. In reality the Vasari place is ok but nothing special. A series of rooms with pretty mediocre art on the walls including a number by Mr V himself. The English translation on the notices in the museum is properly terrible. It is definitely worth reading to try to work out what the original Italian says. The best exhibit I thought is one of the last you come to, which had a statue (I think a Venus de Milo copy? ) on a raised pedestal against the background of painted figures. Her light marbled stone shone against the darker background and worked really work.
I bought a €12 ticket which also covered the San Francesco church and various galleries and museums etc including the Vasari house and the medieval museum and archaeological museum. If you are planning on doing all of these then that is probably a very cost effective way of doing it.
The walk back to the Casa Italia to the Duomo is pretty steep but short. When I went back along the Casa Italia I found a little bookshop on the right-hand side just off the Casa itself and ended up buying a notebook in which I have jotted down notes etc from our trip.
The Pieve de Santa Maria is a huge Romanesque church with lovely carved figures above the main door on your way into the church. I stopped in here on the way back to the car and t is definitely worth a stop.
The archaeological museum/amphitheatre is lovely. The amphitheatre which forms part of the museum is basically ground level only with entrances/gateways marked out, I assume the old public entrance to the amphitheatre rather than the participants. Not much to see but quite atmospheric nonetheless.
The museum forms part of one side of the amphitheatre, it has been nicely built up from the amphitheatre space. The museum is much bigger than you expect with 2 floors and well labelled and informative exhibits. Equally not too much of anything, so no getting bored!
The Etruscan funerary exhibits were amazing and strange. The pottery too was fascinating (and believe me that is not a sentence I ever expected to put on line – there is another one coming up in a moment so see if you can spot that too) Some of the designs really seem to be capturing movement/emotion.
The pottery is coralene style which I had never heard of. Its distinctive characteristic is raised beads and glass and here the pottery had lovely red clay with reliefs. There is one section of the display cabinet showcasing erotic coralene pottery. But it is placed as low as possible level so although it clearly labelled “erotic designs” you would have to actually get down on your hands and knees to see (apparently). The opposite of the top shelf policy is placing something like that at a level where only the kids can see it easily.
The whole archaeological museum is definitely worth another visit.
Summer 2022
We visited Arezzo again in August 2022, because some of our party were getting the train to Rome. By all accounts is not recommended to try and take the train from Perugia is getting to the station as a nightmare. Finding the train station in Arezzo was very straightforward and we ended up parking the car there for half a day and it was very cheap. Be warned that a number of the car park spaces on the roads are only for two hours. it took about 10 minutes walking uphill, and then we wandered around dropping in and out churches et cetera past. The main area is the Piazza Grande, which has got quite a slope on it.
One thing that I did not know before this visit was that the film “Life is Beautiful” was filmed at least in part, in Arezzo and there are several spots where there are signs explaining what scenes from the film were filmed there.
We also visited the Pieve di Santa Maria, which had some amazing carvings over the main door, including one of someone skinning a boar. Standard occupations when the church was being built I suspect.
We could not get into the church of San Francesco because it was necessary to booking in advance. Whether this is strictly adhered to I do not know but we have enough to see anyway that we did not see if we could slip in without a prior booking.
We also visited the archaeological Museum/amphitheatre. Worth visiting but sad to report I think pornographic coral exhibits (see above) have been moved.
We walked back down the Corso Italia, which has good shopping and had lunch at a restaurant off one of the side streets. (Osteria il Grottino, Via Madonna del Prato).
Assisi
27 August 2016
It takes about 50 minutes to drive to Assisi. You go down the E45 and then past Perugia and turn right off the E45 to Assisi. I have now visited Assisi more than any other tourist site in the area, and still think the Basilica of San Francesco is wonderful
We have never really discovered the best way to get to Assisi old town. There are in fact two towns called Assisi. One is at the bottom of the hill and one is at the top of the hill and the sat nav did not seem able to work out the difference between the two. You want the one at the top of the hill.
I think that it is best to miss the first turn off to Assisi, and you take the second one but I strongly suspect we have not cracked this yet. Frankly, if you end up in Assisi Modern, at the bottom of the hill, you will eventually find your way up the hill because you can at least see where you are heading. You will find a road largely going up on the left-hand side of the hill, as you are looking up at the hill if you are in Assisi Modern. There is a road that takes you right up to the up to the car parks etc in the town at the top of the hill. It starts to zigzag when you get to the main hill.
We were able to park right of front of the Basilica Di San Francesco in an underground car park next to the bus station. There was still spaces when we left at 3pm or so. For earlier visits we would assume that would be all full up and parked at the far side of Assisi then walked across, which had taken about 15 minutes. On this visit and indeed a number of other visits since we have always been able to get into the car park in front of the Basilica so that is what you should aim for.
The walk up to the entrance from the but station car park takes about 10 minutes. The road winds around and gives great views over the plain and a side view of the main church.
I was originally advised to get there very early and certainly if you do get there (I think it opens about 8am or 8.30am) I had the place practically to myself for the first half an hour or 40 minutes. On this occasion we got there about 10am and there was no queue to get in although there were of course a number of people visiting. We went in downstairs first to look at the lower church and worked our way up to the church on top. I definitely recommend doing it that way.
I am sure there is some psychological test that you can do as to whether you prefer downstairs or upstairs. I love the downstairs part of the Basilica. Upstairs is fine and would be a knock out in any other circumstances. But I think downstairs is fabulous.
When you go in downstairs you turn left and you are looking down the nave of the aisle towards the alter. The most impressive part is the area right next to the alter (the crossing?). There are crowds of people in there, even though there was no queue but the guides now have microphones and earpieces for each tour party which makes life better for everyone including the guard on the door whose job it is to say “silenzio shhhh” every few minutes. On this occasion we had to the leave the lower church to go outside and round on the road up to the main part because they were doing a service for those who had died in the earthquake while we were out there. Usually you can go up through a narrow doorway at the far end of the church from where you entered it, which makes the impact of the differences downstairs and upstairs all the more striking.
I think the upper part is the more famous part but as I say I am less impressed by it. Clearly it is spectacular. Some very famous images e.g Saint Francis supporting the church and another panel showing him preaching to the birds for example. My wife was disappointed that there were not more of him with the animals…My favourite image is on the left hand side of the church as you walk down towards the altar, in the crossing on the left – the colour has almost all disappeared but the remaining image looks a bit like a print but has an energy which the more celebrated pictures do not. IMHO
The cathedral has a lovely mournful knight outside on the hillside, facing it, designed I think by Norbetto. There was a lovely shop with Norbetto things in the window on the left-hand side on the way up to the Piazza Del Commune. From what I can see online, the statue is apparently St Francis returning to Assisi having decided not to fight in the wars but instead serve God. I do not know if it is true or not but whoever was posting online seemed very convinced that it was the right answer.
If you then walk to Santa Chiara, you go via Piazza Del Commune that takes about 20 minutes . It is fairly steadily up hill from the cathedral. The crypt where she is buried is appropriately gloomy (the crypt of Saint Francis has fake flowers in it – Italian penny pinching or respecting his adoration for life – you choose). The chapel itself is pretty bare.
The Temple of Minerva church in the Piazza Del Commune is easily recognisable from the fluted roman columns outside as originally being something other than a church. The clue is in the name – Santa Maria Sopra Minerva which is a pretty good illustration of the composite history of this church which was originally a Roman temple to Minerva and was presumably taken over when the Empire converted. The inside is an unexpected treat, very baroque and completely over the top, totally at odds with the Romanesque exterior.
The Duomo is a short walk from Santa Chiara further away from the Piazza del Commune. It has a lovely façade to it. We stood and watched some street entertainers who persuaded a number of tourists to help out whilst one of the actors intoned the story – but I could not figure out what it was about and I doubt the tourists knew any better than I did.
It is a drive to get Chiesa Santa Maria Degli Angeli.which is a very large church back down the hill in what I think of as Assisi modern. I had read somewhere that it was the sixth largest church worldwide – I do not actually think this is correct – certainly if you worship at the God of Wikipedia there are plenty larger, but it is pretty big however you measure it. You park near some gardens in front of the church then walk up to the very imposing façade.
Inside is very odd. The space impact is lessened by the not very interesting tapestries that are hanging in the nave and which would interfere with the space. Effectively the tapestries screen the nave from the side aisles. The other peculiar thing is the Porziuncola which is the original chapel where Saint Francis used to pray and which is located inside the larger church. The original chapel has a façade facing the congregation in the larger church that makes it look like a child’s tent or a Wendy house. Seen from the side or behind the little chapel is rather more impressive but in front very not impressive. It is worth a visit but there is no doubt that the main attraction is up the hill.
28 June 2017
We visited Assisi again today. We still have not found the best route to it from the E45. On this occasion we took the first sign to Assisi, off the E45 I should say, and we just then followed the road towards the hill on which the cathedral is based and managed to get there. Still don’t think we have it right.
We started at the lower level and found that at 11.30am there was a church service going on in the chapel straight ahead of you as you go into the lower cathedral. There were 100 or so people in attendance. This is more than the chapel could accommodate so people were kneeling in the aisles. Depending on how suspicious you are, singing was either surprisingly good and enthusiastic or there were backing tapes were involved.
The impression downstairs is blue. The ceiling of the downstairs church is divided into four triangles between each arch and is blue with stars in a row or triangles depending on your perspective. The massive mural at the end has a different sky blue colour to it. The circles overhead are each individually patterned (Arabic/geometric patterns prevailing). The arches downstairs have a Romanesque curve whereas those above have a definite point to the arch.
When you enter the church downstairs through the door, the nave runs away to your left with at first little to hint at the splendour and impact awaiting you when you stand close to the alter where the nave reveals the full range of the frescos behind the altar, in the transepts and overhead.
The wooden roof bands (technical term needed?) run from each corner of the arch to the opposite corner to create the four triangles in each space
The cross hanging above he alter is much older in appearance and islit so it really catches your eye from the far end of the church. Perspective is what counts and in the main fresco behind the altar is of the Day of Judgment with three trumpeters waking the saved and the damned alike. Part of the mural incorporates the window in the wall. There is a sloping windowsill below the window, but the cherub on it is painted so to appear to be standing up. Very clever use of perspective. There is also similar trick in one of the side chapels where an arch meets a rounded pillar but the design painted on the arch meshes perfectly into the rounded pillar.
Upstairs is much cooler, less chaos and more cerebral. High ceilings, simple regular panels showing the life of Saint Frances. A fair amount of earthquake damage is still apparent (I had forgotten that Assisi was badly hit and people died in the church). My favourite of the frescos upstairs is straight across past the alter (if you pass the alter to your right) to the far side of the transept. If you turn and face the alter having cross the transept, the picture on your right seems to have lost all of its colour yet there is an energy in the force which I think is lacking in many of the other images in that part of the cathedral. I think it is partly the angle of Christ’s hip on the cross and the dramatic pose of one of the women watching him die and it is the undecipherable contact between a Saint and Jesus on the right-hand side of the picture. It looks Mannerist to me but a way which is wholly out of keeping with the rest of the upstairs.
25 August 2017
Just a few extra thoughts about the Basilica. Over the altar downstairs facing you as you go in (where they held the service last time I was here) I noticed that there are lovely frescoes of curtains painted over the arch of the chapel as if the curtains have been drawn back to let you see. They are a beautiful red colour too.
The Cappello Di Niccolo is on the right-hand side of the alter (as you are facing it) (think transept if the church had them). I would like to know more about what the shipwreck relates to – one of the panels clearly indicates that he had a problem with the shipwreck.
The bus station car park was full by 11am today.
Bettona
25 June 2017
It is about a 45 minute drive to get here. You go down towards Perugia and then take the Chiusi road before heading off to the left. It is very close to Torregiano. We saw signs to the wine museum at Torregiano when we were about five minutes from reaching Bettona.
We happened to visit Bettona one Sunday lunchtime/early afternoon. The place was deserted. We parked up against the city walls and had about five minutes walk to the Piazza Cavour. Very little was open. It felt indeed more like a film set than a town. It looked as if the remnants of a food festival with placards around advertising each of the restaurants and their particular dishes. We lucked into the Straccaganasse which was on Corso Marconi. Lovely welcome from the owner and his wife and we had a fantastic starter of ham and figs. Then I had some wonderful chicken, rocket/tomato combo. Coffees. To follow
There were a couple of exhibits which were open, where they have glass fronts across the opening to the church but you cannot actually get in. There were some lovely looking frescos. The main church is very white with a few interesting paintings but my lack of glasses and my wife waiting (not so patiently) outside meant I did not linger. The most impressive bit of the building was the almost complete silence. There was a real sense that the building was almost murmuring to itself just out of hearing.
The museum Bettona on the left just after our restaurant had the great merit of being open but there was relatively little to see unfortunately. Some very odd shaped headstones. Definitely during the midst of life we are in death etc. You will see what I mean if you visit the museum.
The gallery upstairs was, to put it bluntly, awful. Uninspired and insipid, and let us not forget that I would kill for a fraction of the artistic talent that was on display there. One semi-decent Dona Doni. Maybe this would be a place to visit on market day?
Castiglioni di Fiorentino
I visited this small town on 1 September 2016 on my way back from Arezzo. It is somewhere between 50 minutes to a one hour drive from Valliano. It was very much a spur of the moment thing. It looked interesting and the Arezzo road takes you right past the main city gate.
I parked at the bottom of the Corso Italia which was very easy but I have no idea whether it would have been too busy to park there during the day because I got there at about 18:00 or so. I followed the Corso Italia up past a mix of lovely shops, some standard looking restaurants and a lovely shop window on the corner advertising which looked like some amazing ceramics. Sadly the advert was for a shop based somewhere else in Castiglion Fiorentino and I have never managed to find the shop.
The walk from the main city gates to the main town gate takes about seven minutes and brings you up onto the top of the town and a piazza with a restaurant. It is the Piazza Municipale which has amazing restaurants/loggia with views down over the plains. One side of the loggia was taken up with a café bar and the other with a restaurant. If the food was as good as the views then I would highly recommended both.
The only other pub sign I saw was for the Velvet Underground pub (genuinely its name) which is past the piazza and down the hill to the other side.
The right hand turn off the Corso Italia takes you up to a green open space, more views and tall tower at the very top of the hill. The green space has walls and used to have an Etruscan temple though there are no remains other than the notice itself to tell you what used to be there. The museum by that space was closed (I think weekend opening times only?).
From the piazza municipale there, there are at least a couple of other good churches and the guidebook mentions a museum/art gallery somewhere in the town.
I had seen an interesting looking piazza on the left on my way up the Corso Italia so on my way back down the hill again I took a right-hand turn to go investigate it. It is fairly modest piazza with a church (San Francesco) off to one side. It seemed quite badly looked after in my impression, from the outside at least. The church itself was shut but from the door on the left there was beautiful classical music playing (Mozart??) and so I asked the man on the door if I could sneak in to listen through the door to have a listen. Heavenly.
The garden was a cloistered garden. Under the roofing on the right-hand side a small German orchestra was rehearsing for a concert that evening. There must have been 40 or so white plastic chairs I assume that was where they were going to be performing in the evening. The female conductor was taking the orchestra through a piece led by two solo flutes. There were only a couple of other watchers and a gaggle of kids – obviously with the orchestra. The two soloists were women (although the orchestra itself was mixed). One of the women was tall and thin which reminded me of that saying about people eventually looking after their pets. I wonder is true that people start to look like their pets, do musicians start to look like their instruments?
I did a little bit of research when I got back home. I have worked out that the orchestra was a German orchestra doing a show at 9.15pm that evening and apparently had been playing in Castiglion Fiorentino for 40 years now. Be a lovely thing to go and watch if we ever get the chance.
26 November 2016
We went back to Castiglion Fiorentino because I wanted to show Mrs R the town. However this time round it was a bit of a disappointment. Mostly the town was shut up, there was nowhere to eat (apart from an ok-ish looking restaurant). The views were totally lost in the mist.
I think the moral from that is that it is not a place to visit out of season. However if you are passing during the summer it is definitely worth a stop in just to do a bit of exploring and to sample the view.
Summer 2021
We went back for a morning one summer’s day and the place was how I remembered it from our first visit. Lovely view, very photogenic generally, so it made for a lovely trip. It is about an hour maximum to get there, and the drive is pretty pleasant too. Coffee in the Bar Maro on the way up the hill (on your left) once you have gone through the gates in the old town walls. Good coffee and biscuits!
I have always parked at the bottom of the hill but it seems that there is good parking area higher up, still outside the city walls, which we saw when we were following the Satnave coming out of Castiglione, and which would be worth bearing in mind if the little car park at the bottom of the hill, just outside the City walls is full up.
Chiusi
We have visited Chiusi four times now but only ever to eat at the completely and utterly wonderful La Solita Zuppa. For some reason we have never looked around Chiusi itself until now. I do not think you need any other reason to visit Chiusi other than to eat at the restaurant which, without a word of a lie, is probably my favourite restaurant in the world. I know that I am probably overselling it a little but we have been coming here for something like 10 years now and whenever we have been in the area whenever we can we come here and it has never disappointed us.
The sat nav took across country from Umbertide via Antignolla and then past Panicale. The drive took about 90 minutes. It is pretty bumpy and the roads were not great it has to be said. I strongly suspect there is a better and smoother route. If you are using a sat nav to find Chiusi it is listed on our sat nav as Chiusi SI (Sienna). I think there is more than one Chiusi in Italy, so be warned. It is not that near to Sienna so assume it is simply in the province of Sienna.
The meal we had at the restaurant was as fantastic as ever. Although we made the mistake of having cheese before the dessert course so when they served a cheese selection with honey we were left regretting the remaining wine that we had which really did not go. The cheese selection was described as a “composition” by the owner to his wife and it certainly was. Isn’t Italian a wonderful evocative language? Seven different cheeses and three dips (all with an ounce of honey).
Before lunch we had walked down the Via Porzenna which has the restaurant at one end and then goes down to the archaeological museum at the other end
The church (San Secondiano) is spectacular inside but sadly it is all fake. The mosaics are dated from 1915 but they certainly do look the part. The church itself is fine. All roman arches and a bit gloomy. You have to go down several steps as you enter the church. Presumably proof that the ground has risen in the 1500 or so years since it was built? The cathedral musuem was closed by the time we had finished so we have never been around it.
The Museo Nazionale Etruscan di Chiusi is a small collection. The ground floor is Etruscan and then one floor down is really life in roman times. The guide book mentioned that some of the best bits were taken by other museums, which the museum itself pointed out – quite endearingly. The best bit is actually here – with the red/black figure vases. Mind you the tourist shop on the corner of the same road was selling tacky Etruscan copies, including one of a very graphic threesome – I am not sure entirely sure what my mother thought of the tacky Etruscan items when she enquired if we really needed to go around the museum having been able to see the tourist shop. The museum is probably worth half an hour’s visit but there are better museums around.
I also visited Chiusi San Francesco as it was mentioned on TripAdvisor. It is a bit nondescript but interesting spiral pillars on the outside of the main door and a bizarre design habit of building pillars for the side aisles which then obscure the murals some of which had some nice touches but the others looked very basic.
I see from checking it out afterwards that San Secondiano was a martyr between 250 and 258AD. This seems to be based on a long list of his actions drawn up 200 years later but given he is a local Tuscan martyr I suspect he was/is a big thing?
The address for La Solita Zuppa is Via Porsenna 21. https://lasolitazuppa.it
Citta Delle Pieve –
29 June 2017
This is about an hour and 20 minute drive via Perugia. You end up quite close to Chiusi (see elsewhere on this page) so if you want to combine the trip to Citta Delle Pieve with another destination that is a good plan.
Parking is pretty easy. I found a free car park outside the city walls and it was only a 10 minute walk into the heart of the old town. I passed Oratorio Santa Maria Dei Bianchi on the way into town from where I had parked the car. It cost of all of €2 to go in. I had a lovely chat with the elderly Italian guy who was looking after the picture. The Perugino Fresco is definitely worth all of €2 and I had a free conversation in Italian thrown in for good measure. I do not know if there is a separate church connected or this is a single room with the Perugino Fresco on its own. I am also not entirely sure how it survived being taken away by Napoleon when he looted the rest of Perugino Frescos? Maybe someone forgot to mention to him that it was here?
Anyway this fresco is in a lovely condition (but has apparently been restored twice). It takes up the full side of one wall facing you as you go in. Although the notices said that you could not take photos the man selling tickest was quite happy for me to take photographs, provided I did not use flash. Maybe that was my reward for speaking Italian. The Fresco itself has a multitude of figures in it plus the landscape of Lake Trasemino, as it was at the time it was painted, in the background. Lovely colours.
There are also two handwritten letters where the artist and church were arguing about how much he should be paid. I think he may have been paid a mule for part of the payment (not sure about my Italian here! I may have misunderstood that somewhere down the line).
On either side of the door there are two large crosses which used to be used for possessions through the town. I commented to the old man that they looked heavy. He told me they were not and that in his day he had been the carrier for one of the crosses in the procession
I then walked up to the central crossing (it is not really a square). On it is the Palazzo Della Corgna which seemed to be shut and a street market almost all of its goods for sale being cheap clothing but some food at the far end of the market which stretched from the Duomo to the El Rocca (which was again shut today).
I then sat in an excellent coffee shop and listened to the British Lions fluking a win against the All Blacks – so all was well at that point.
The main cathedral is a study in mottled brown marble and a plain white ceiling. There are only two short sets of pews with a wide space between them. The two Peruginos are in the first chapel on the left and then in the main window over the alter. The first is immediately obvious. The second is not labelled (well not by the labels/notices nearby). So it took a bit more figuring out. There is no way to avoid comparing the first Perugino picture with its unnaturally tall figures, to the figure of the knight in the next door chapel whose legs are unnaturally short. On the other hand the painting over the organ facing the main window is bizarrely new and jarring – definitely out of keeping with the rest of the church.
Later, on my way back to the car, I passed the church again and saw that there was a wedding taking place in the cathedral. Very formal, very Italian. Bride wore a lovely red dress, two bridesmaids in white and they were all practicing tossing the bouquet to each other. I wonder if they have the same custom in Italy or whether it means something else?
I then visited Chiesa De Gesu which has a lovely Pomarancino picture on the right-hand wall of St John and Salome – with the sword about to descend on his head/neck. The two figures are both picked out by the light/contrast in colours. His skin is covered in fur – hers in colours and she is holding the plate which is about to serve us his head but holding it as far away from her to avoid getting any blood. Partly averting eyes but partly still watching.
Then I went down to Santa Maria Dai Servi – which meant turn left off the central spine (on our way back to the car) and then walking down about five minutes to the church just outside the City walls. It is now a museum with a very damaged Perugino Fresco inside, but you can go right up to it and look at it quite closely. I read somewhere that the plaster was put on for each section at the beginning of the day and then the painter would need to cover it before the end of the day. I wanted to see if I could see the panel works on the fresco. Not sure…
The rest of the art was mediocre apart from one incredibly striking (I assume fiberglass) sculpture by Wolfgang Alexander Kossuth of Maria Maddalena at the foot of the cross with her crouched contorted figure around the base of the cross from which Christ hangs. Her stretched out arms supports the Christ figure on the cross. Somewhat inappropriately, It looked to me like he was a bat about to swoop down on her. He had very short tuffs of hair which made him almost like an aggressive figure leaning over her. Quite extraordinary.
Corciano
August 2023
I drove here to have a general look around as it is supposed to be one of the best places for Etruscan influenced history/architecture in Umbria. It took about 1 hour 15 I think. The village is very pretty, very clean and picturesque. I ended up taking lots of photos just wandering aound. I won’t be challenging for any photography prizes any time soon but ti was fund to do. It is a fairly typical old town which has retained its city walls. I parked by the Corcian antiquarium and tourist office. But there were a number of other car parks signed, so I think you would be unlucky not to find somwhere to park if you were visiting. The Antiquarium is a couple of rooms so it is definitely worth a visit. The signs were mostly in Italian and English which helpes. I was the only person there and it was interesting 20 minutes or so. Etruscan funeral memorials were of interest. The chiesa di s. Antonio abate is ruined and only about five minutes walk to reach, with some good views out over the countryside as you go up and the climb is defintely not a steep one. The main church San Francesco was shut (no idea when it would open), which was a shame but I wandered around find a couple of other churches to look at. I think it is definitely worth a longer visit than I could spare on this occasion.
Cortona
29 August 2016
Of all the places we visited in Italy I think Cortona would probably rate as my wife’s favourite place and we have probably, as a result of this, visited it more times than anywhere else.
There is a beautiful drive up through the hills to get to Cortona from Valliano. It probably takes about an hour and a quarter to get there. It is definitely idea to do the drive in good weather, because some of the views are excellent.
Parking is not great but we found a large car park off the road going around the city walls, which was half empty. I think the car park is the Parking of the Holy Spirit – I suspect this loses something in translation. The first time we parked there we then walked back down the road to the main entrance into Cortona which is probably a good 15 minute walk to the heart of the old town and it is pretty steep. Keep reading below as there is a much easier way of getting from this car park into Cortona
The car park is past the Santo Spirito and then up Via Guelfo just off the SP34. We subsequently found that there is a partial escalator. Instead of turning down the hill when you come out of the car park, you walk up about three minutes and on the left-hand side, when you cross over the road, there is a combination of a staircase and an escalator that brings you out at the top of the hill.
If you do the walk up from the bottom there is a lovely square in the centre of the town. Lots of coffee shops and clothes shops/bag shops (apparently). You walk across the square towards the left-hand side (if you walked up from the bottom of the hill) to get to the Duomo which has some beautiful frescos and is right on the edge of the old town, so some spectacular views looking over the countryside.
The opposite side of the square with the cathedral in it is the Museo Diocesano which is simply wonderful. Assorted Fra Angelicoes [Angelici?]. These are laid out really well and there is a stunning red slippered angel telling Mary of her role to come. We have visited here many times and it is never crowded so I cannot simply recommend it enough. And the museum is very small so even those with the attention span of a forgetful goldfish can cope with it.
Downstairs in the Museo there is some relatively nondescript artwork (modern) then there is a lovely little fresco chapel – totally unexpected and very atmospheric – a real find.
Our first visit we only had little time so we did not get the MAEC museum but we did stop by the 54th Monstra Mercito Nazionale D’Antiquiro which had lots and lots of beautiful antiques to tempt me to do something silly. We got speaking to one (very bored) woman in a room at the end who was completely excited to have someone to talk to that her Italian was literally coming out at full speed. I just about held on but it did make realise how slowly most people speak when they are speaking to me.
25 November 2016
Well reader, I went back to MAEC.
We discovered that there are two routes to Cortona. The sat nav wanted us to head north and then effectively turn west across country to Cortona. However it brought us back through Corneto which is the next village between Promano and Citta di Castello
The other sat nav had taken us effectively towards to Umbertide on the back route (not the E45) and then over the Tiber and almost into Umbertide before we turned right at a small village (Niccone) where you join the SP146
It generally either way took about an hour and a bit so I guess it is just down to traffic and your sense of taste.
We tend to do the Niccone route by default to Cortona.
When we went back in November to Cortona most of the shops (but not all of them) were open in the morning but there are some differences from the summer season. Closing at 1pm and opening again at 4pm (and maybe a little fuzzy on the reopening bit) and some closed early and some seemed to open early. Cash discounts become the norm. I wanted to know if this is because it is safer to take the risk or is the assumption that most people in Italy in November are not typical tourists. Maybe it was just difficult times in Italy. The discount, for what it is worth, seems to be worth roughly 13% for cash.
The MAEC museum is two different collections yoked together – it is quite easy to miss the second collection. Downstairs is a fairly standard collection of Tuscan materials. Some copies of stuff which are found elsewhere Some but not all of the exhibits are in English.
The amazing thing in this part was the collection of tondos. These are drum burial sites, large ancient mausoleums which were used over centuries but not constantly. But at least one of the tondos was for a single grave.
Upstairs there is a wholly different collection of material from Cortona itself. If you think of the Victoria and Albert museum in London which typical mish-mash of layout and mixed paintings (paintings not great – also just the like V&A) some Egyptian mummies (not great but in Cortona?), and a coin collection with looks as if they were all lined up neatly in rows and then someone lifted the board just enough so that each coin has slipped towards its neighbour. Some of the museum is good. Some is more ho hum but I enjoyed and would happily go back again. It took about an hour wandering around.
I also visited the church of San Francesco – it is off the main road which goes through the old town of Cortona on the right-hand side. It is about 7 minutes walk from the central square. The church itself is quite plain on the outside and some fragments of frescos on the walls inside and some ok paintings. I am fairly sure there is meant to be a Signorelli is in there somewhere. I could not spot it – I know he is buried at the church.
If you walk along the Via Nazionale from the Pizza Della Republica you come to a lovely square which opens out to one of the best views I have ever seen, over towards Lake Trasimeno but with a full panorama of all the buildings, churches, straight roman roads etc. In fact, if you have someone that will not make the walk up any stairs in Cortona I would keep this square in mind. If instead of going into the car park, you keep going past the car park entrance, ie you follow the road around with the car park on your right the road goes up towards the town and you come out in this square. You do not need to go into the centre town because there is then a route effectively turning left around the fountain in the centre of the square you end up going straight back down and out almost by the car park again. We have used that a few times to drop people off if they were not up to walking. This is also the square which you come up to when using the escalators from the car park
On this visit I also visited San Dominico which is off the square with amazing views. The church itself had nothing spectacular. There is on 14th century fresco which was obviously bricked up and so survived on its own until now. Lovely very different colouring from the norm. Did the workmen bricking up the fresco worry about hiding the Virgin from sight or was it just a job?
15 April 2017
See I told you we came here a lot.
Dropped the others in our party at the top of the town in square with the amazing views. It took two minutes to drive back down the hill to the car park once you have done the drop off. Turn right at the bottom of the hill to get back towards the car park on your left. The escalator itself takes about three or four minutes with the stairs if you are reasonably fit and energetic about it.
Coffee at the square with the view was good. With a fruit muffin which was met with approval.
Had lunch on the terrace overlooking the main square. Restaurante La Loggetta on Via Del Pescheria. A real find, although we notice it gets very busy. The pasta was excellent.
Had another trip around the cathedral. It is nothing special. It looks like it was made out of concrete, very gloomy and the paintings do not really offset the tone and the feel of the grey. The Signorellis, which I found this time, are excellent.
By the way, I quite genuinely reckon that there are more defibrillator machines on street corners in Cortona than there are cash points/bancomats. Presumably says something about the average experience of visitors in Cortona.
20 August 2017
This was a bit of an expensive trip to Cortona. Encountered a wonderful art shop (just off Via Nazionale). My wife had found it on a previous girls only trip to Italy. We bought a stunning photograph of Italian countryside and some painted tiles which we are going to have to go back in November to collect. The shop is down a passageway on the right hand side as you walk away from the centre of the town. It’s only a couple of minutes along the road. Well worth a detour but lock up your money before going The shop is called Pozzo – Galleria Del Arte, Via Nazionale, 10, Cortona And owner/manager is very helpful.
I tried to visit some of the sites that I have not been to before in Cortona. The Chiesa San Nicollo was allegedly open but the church itself was all locked up. I also visited the church of San Francesco but realised I had been there previously. It is ok but nothing special. Paintings on the wall are a bit too much of a show off.
Also we walked to the top end of Cortona Old Town which has got excellent views (Ponte Montanina) and then found the church of San Cristoforo which is a lovely deserted little church. It has the remnants of a fresco facing you as you go in and galleries at the back end of the church. Look at the well preserved fresco behind the alter. Shame it does not get a mention in the main guidebook so it is a pretty good example of the richness of Cortona.
We had lunch at the restaurant overlooking the square again. Service was slow but the food was very good.
10 November 2017
We got talking to someone on the plane out to Italy on this trip and he recommended the restaurant Croce del Travaglio which is right next to the theatre (and has green shutters). Walk past the theatre on the left-hand side heading up hill and it is a minute or so walk beyond that. He said it was the best pizza he had ever eaten and he was absolutely right. It is that good.
Summer 2021
We have always found Cortona to be pretty busy and usually hot too, so we were very pleased to find Ristorante Tempero Via Benedetti 10/12 which is just off the main squares, has its own little courtyard area, in the shade. If you want a little more peace and quiet than lunch on the main squares, do check this restaurant out.
If you are interested in picking up some high end Tuscan/Umbrian wine and would like some good advice on what to get, do Margheriti on Via Nazionale 61 Very pleasant, excellent English and yes, you could spend the GNP of a Carribean island in there, if you wanted to – but we got some excellent rose wine there and they were happy to make recommendations. We have been there two or three times, and we have enjoyed all of their choices for us.
Deruta
2 July 2018
We drove to Deruta after dropping our house guest off at the airport. It seemed sensible to make something of the trip down here. Deruta is about 40 minutes’ drive from the airport and because we did not come back straight from Deruta either I have no idea how long it would take to drive straight there from Valliano.
Anyway do not believe the guidebook if they tell you that the ceramics museum is open on Mondays and Tuesdays. It is not, so I accept we probably did not see Deruta at its best.
You park outside the city walls of the old town, having followed signs to Centro and then Centro Storico. The Centro Storico is pretty small and (with the exception of one church which was open) Deruta is all about majolica. I was not that keen on the stuff but having visited Deruta I think I would probably revise that opinion, because there are some beautiful objects.
So far as I can tell the old town stretches for a few blocks and most are majolica stores. We followed a man in a red shirt who had been part of the ceremonial precession we saw (the new Italian Minister of the culture was in town apparently). It turned out he owned the kiln museum and majolica shop. It was a lovely shop. He spoken very good English. The only other living thing in the shop was a bobtailed cat (also an antique – according to the owner). We bought some glasses and marvelled at the various different types of majolica over the years because he has a collection of older artefacts many of which are very beautiful. We took a couple of photos of some byzantine style jars.
We then made our way up to main street and got pounced upon by the owner of another majolica shop – who entertainingly was not above letting us know that we had made terrible mistake buying from the kiln museum guy which did mildly irritate me. Definitely a more obvious sale process going on but eventually we did buy some dishes which took our fancy. We paid in cash (of course).
We then had an ok cup of coffee at the Café Dei Consoli which is on the left-hand side passing the tourist information place. We did not stay for lunch because we could not find anywhere open – in fairness it was a Monday.
August 2019
We went back to Deruta today remembering to avoid the Monday closing that had caused us problems last time.
The journey directly from the house to Deruta took no more than an hour. Slightly dodgy bit going round Perugia trying to find the right road but basically it helps to realise that it is the E45 all the way down to Deruta. But rather quicker than I guessed from last time.
We parked at the same place outside the City Walls and there were still spaces at 1045 on an August mid week.
Went to the Ceramics museum, which was good but not brilliant. Some real testaments to bad taste in the products on show but some lovely items too. I thought that the best were some of the work based on images from Renaissance as they are really strikingly rendered. There is a section which has Roman and Greek vases too but sadly that was roped off, so we could not go round it.
Visited the main church next door which definitely worth a visit. Some reasonable fresco remains on the walls, at least one of which looks pretty old to me.
We had lunch at Taverna del Gusto which is just off the main square and which provided a lovely meal sitting in the shaded passageway between the buildings adjoining the passage way. It is on the right hand side as you come into the square. I remember the time before we had struggled to find anywhere to eat so we were pleased to find this.
I also managed to persuade the party to visit again the old furnace Antica Fornace in Via Fabbretti which is pretty well sign posted off the main square. The majolica collection is brilliant as always and various of the party found themselves buying things. Be warned it is a dangerous shop! And sadly the cat is no more…..
We were back in Deruta again in August 2023. Partly to show my son and his girlfriend the town but also to replace one of our beloved set of painted wine glasses which had got broken. The shop, (the forno, which is sign posted from the main square) was shut but had a phone number on the door to call. So Giovanni, who owns the shop turned up about 5 minutes later. Had a lovely chat with him and learnt that the cat’s mother is still around, aged 23. But sheis a very antisocial Siamese apparently.
Fontingnano
I visited here on the same day I went to Tavernelle (see below). The main reason was to visit the church with Perugino’s grave and apparently his final fresco. It was well sgined when you get to Fontingnano but unfortunaely the church was shut for repairs with a team of about five working on it. I asked them if the church was closed during the repairs and they said it was but if I wanted to have a look at Perugino’s tomb I could do that but not take any photos.. Which was very kind of them. It was difficult to envisage what it would look like. and I think some of the paintings were either removed from the church, or were propped up against the walls. So it was good to see it but probably not worth a trip on its own. I forgot to ask when the restoration work would be finished.
Gualdo Tagino
18 March 2018
We recently drove to Gualdo Tagino via the Parco Regionale – partly because we had not visited the park as yet and wanted to get an indication of what it was like and partly to avoid driving up and down the E45 more times than is absolutely necessary. Nothing against the road but it does seem to be an ever daily occurrence when we are out here
The drive via the park (taking the Gubbio turn off the E45) is about an hour and a quarter but an easy drive – not massively scenic it has to be said.
We parked in a small car park in the out town and walked about 10 minutes to the central square (Piazza Grande). It reminded me a lot of a town we visited last year – but I cannot now remember which one – which is not a lot of use I appreciate.
Very quiet in GT at this time of the season, although it was a Saturday. We arrived about 11.30 and had coffee just off the main square. Slightly down the hill on the right-hand side. Six Italian cyclists (still wearing their helmets and glasses) stopped for a coffee – no sign of their bikes anywhere so they must have a locked garden area? Good coffee and the waitress was kind enough to speak in Italian to me.
The churches were all shut up by now so we walked up the hill (five minutes) to the Rocca Flea – the €6 ticket would have got us admission to all the museums in the town but since it was 12.30 and everything else was shut we just had the Rocca to explore.
t is a slightly odd set up inside. There is some interesting archaeological stuff, some damaged frescos and a beautiful alter piece but then padded out with modern ceramic objects/sculptures. I challenge you to play “guess the title” on these modern objects because you would simply never ever get them right.
It takes about 30 minutes to go round the Rocca Museum.
We tried to find somewhere to have lunch but there was nowhere that took our fancy.
We visited Magione twice today. Once on the way to Chiusi for lunch and once for the Lake Trasimeno music festival to see Angela Hewitt play Bach pieces. Although we did spent relatively little time on either occasions in Magione, the concert was at the castle of the Knights of Malta. It was outdoors in the courtyard area of the castle. We were sitting right at the back but to the right of the piano so we could see her play. I think the enjoyment of a piano concert depends on seeing what the pianist is doing as much as listening. Watching her play she had her wrists raised very high or completely flat but never dropped below completely flat and she had wonderful supple movements whilst playing. Not above a bit of am-dram holding a pose at the start.
We found the concert by accident because we saw a single advert at the airport, and I followed up on it, to get the very last four tickets for the concert that evening.
The weather forecast had been terrible and we were told it was likely to rain so she indicated at the very beginning that she was going to go straight through and any would be shortened because if it rained that would be an end to the concert. We had no way of covering the piano so it would be off and so would she…
In the end all was well and there was no rain and the wind that had caused problems held off.
There were about 200 people in the concert space and the audience was completely hooked on her playing throughout. No talking, photographs, sweetie papers rustling etc. amazing audience, in an amazing location.
She was playing a Fazzioli piano (first I have seen) and the music score was on an ipad. Again, another first.
The courtyard space was fully enclosed (but no roof) by the walls with two story buildings around the side. The main wall behind her had a buttress from which hung the Trasimeno festival poster) but unfortunately they had hung it squint to the annoyance of one of our number.
We were told no photos etc and I remember a member of the audience telling a stranger sitting next to him to stop filming covertly because it was disrespectful.
The only audience reaction came at the announcement of an encore. As a reward for our patience and because she had been playing unfamiliar Bach pieces, she said that we had earned the Goldberg Aria. The audience’s reaction which was a sigh of pleasure just as if we had collectively all stepped into a warm bath together. The only time I have heard anything like that was when I saw my friend Donald and his band playing on his 50th birthday and they did an unexpected cover of “I want to know what love is” . Same reaction, to a song which everyone in the audience decided they really liked on the spot and were pleased to be allowed to hear it. It was of course magnificent.
Found a new favourite though which was Andante movement of Sonata in D minor No 964. Really beautiful stuff. Went on line that evening, printed off a copy and was trying to master it that evening. Only printed score I could find was from a Polish second hand book store. Thank god music is international and that we have the internet.
Keep a look out for the Trasimeno music festival if you are in the area. It is well worth a chance to get some tickets. The dress code is smart casual at most and you are not paying a fortune to see her in far worse conditions in concert halls in the UK.
We subsequently found a good restaurant to eat at before the festival, if it is happening in Magione. Al Sottobosco ristorante Via Del Quadrifoglio Magione. We parked just outside, had a lovely meal and had plenty of time before heading up the hill to find the concert venue. Which basically is up the hill and head right. Not left. Like we did…….
Gubbio
26 August 2016
It takes about 45 minutes to drive to Gubbio on the E45 towards Perugia. Do beware however that one of the signs that you pass on the E45 is completely the wrong distance to get to Gubbio and so actually is significantly further away than the sign indicates. I suspect it is a sign for the distance to the Gubbio turn off from the E45 but then the distance given seems too long. Answers on a postcard please.
We set the sat nav for the Piazza Quatri Martiri and found parking nearby for two cars for our party.
The walk up to the Piazza Consoli is quite steep but relatively short. The road winds around the back of the building and the entrance is on the Piazza Grande side, which is opposite the Piazza Pretoriale which looks as if it originally had a different shape, as it extended over into the Piazza itself judging by the protruding brickwork. When you pass in front of the Piazza Grande, if you are on the level below it, walking along the street it is worth looking up and you realise that the whole piazza is built on gigantic arches – really quite impressive.
The Piazza Consoli is a large building with a mix of art/archaeology. It has the Eugubian tablets in one room which is about 10 tablets written in old Umbrian. Some of them are almost comprehensible if you stare at them long enough. You can flip over for a translation if you cannot work it out yourself. There are great views over the square of the neighbouring valley from the museum.
The Via xx Settembre runs alongside the Piazza Grande. Some shops (lots of tat). The route up to the Duomo goes up on the Via xx Settembre and then back on itself the Via xx Monte Feltro. It takes about 10 minutes to walk up to the cathedral. There is a short cut which we only found on the way down. As you are coming back down you can turn right and rather than taking the winding route there is a short cut which takes you straight down to the Via xx Settembre through an archway. I think it would be a fairly steep climb up that route. I would stick with the more gentle route going up!
At the top of the Duomo (which is fairly nondescript from the my recollection) is the Palazzo Ducale. It is rather more interesting. There is some roman era foundations exposed to view.
If you walk further up beyond the Duomo, about 5 minutes there is some lovely views back over Gubbio.
20 August 2017
We went back to Gubbio today. The normal car parking etc was all blocked off because of the Trofeo Fagioli which is a hill course motor race. Lots of lovely but quite small racing cars were parked up at the side of the road through the normal car park near the Teatro Romano. We parked in Via Russeau and then walked up Via Cavour into the centre.
My first stop was the Cattedrali San Francesco – which is diagonally right across the patch of grass which has the bus station at the far side. It is before you start to climb up into the centre of Gubbio. It is about 10 minutes walk from where I parked the car.
The church is lovely. At the far end there are two chapels which have lots of beautiful frescos, some in pretty good condition. The chapel on the right has a sort of shelf part way up the wall so effectively it becomes too a chapel and a wall panel above it but the style of the frescos above and below matches. I do not know why they felt it was a good idea to divide the chapel in that fashion. The chapel on the left has survived better without the divide and as a result I think it has rather more impact.
I then went looking for Chiesa San Agostino which is a 10 minute walk if you cut across the centre of the old town. It is probably easier to walk around the City walls to the Porto Romano which is the nearest gate.
There was a church service going on there so I sat at the back and practiced my Italian, if not any faith – it was a full crowd but I think the service was the anniversary of the founding of the church (it is possible that I am of course wrong about this). The priest taking the service spoken lovely slow Italian and so I strongly suspect a load of tourist were attending this service. It was all very casual and informal and quite lovely.
I remember a friend of mine telling me that Roman Catholics do not dress up to meet their god on Sunday but protestants do. There were several very cute looking alter boys and girls (who were sent around to take the collection – the Roman Catholic church clearly knows what it is about). I loved the fact that the boy and girl doing the collection nearest to me go to the back of the church having collected money and then had a competition to see who had collected more. I also noticed that confession was going on during the service, which seems to be a bit of double counting if you are attending church.
The hymns were interesting. Very poppy, guitar based, happy clappy songs – not what I was expecting at all.
The frescos over the alter were beautiful. Obviously I could not go up and look at them closely because of the service but it is definitely worth a return trip when there is no service going on.
It was 10 minutes or so to walk back into the centre of the old town, I had a coffee and after the coffee I went back to the Teatro Romano which has the archaeological museum to its left. It cost €8 to get in to the museum and the Teatro with a combined ticket. I am not sure if you can get into the Teatro on its own.
The museum is well worth doing but not fantastic. The young woman who sold me the ticket persuaded me to sit through a film in Italian on the site. She promised English sub-titles but I got English chapter headings instead. There are some interesting looking mosaics in the museum itself which some were slightly psychedelic in places.
The Teatro is in ruins but it is well worth a walk around it. I had not realised the size of the structure that existed behind the stage as a backdrop but you only get a sense of it if you wonder around. It felt like an odd juxtaposition to be standing in the old Teatro looking at the motor racing going up the hill for the Fagioli competition. There are some Roman mosaics about five minutes walk away in the park area but when we last went to see them they had been put behind wiring and fences so you could only see them at authorised hours.
August 18
Piazza Martiri is a good spot for parking if you can get in. You get a yellow plastic token which you then redeem at the car park machine to get out.
The Palazzo Ducale is now 12 Euros but combined with Duomo and one other building (can’t remember which). Etruscan tablets are the best thing in here I think.
December 18
Gubbio boasts the tallest Christmas tree in the world. It is a bit of a cheat really because the “tree” is Christmas tree lights strung up the mountainside above Gubbio. But since recent people to turn the lights have included the last two popes and the International Space Station, I think we can forgive the hype. Anyway we went on the first Saturday in December during the day. Bad mistake. Christmas market and hordes and hordes of people meant that there was no parking so we gave it up as a bad job. If you are going go early I think and be prepared for serious crowds.
Montefalco
August 2017
This is an Italian hilltop town about an hour and a quarter’s drive away. You go down the E45 and it is signed off the E45 past the airport turn off. It is really easy to find. Parking at the height of August was very easy. We turned left around the City walls and there was a free car park on the left one level down the hillside. The walk to the centre of town is about seven minutes going past the Complesso Museale San Francesco. Don’t be fooled by the entrance appearing to be shut. The actual entrance is slightly further up on the left-hand side of the road.
I went around the museum and the cathedral on my own (obviously). Equally obviously my wife was engaged in propping up the local economy.
The museum, really an art gallery, was very good. It was almost totally deserted. Lots of 14th to 17th century paintings/frescos. No protected glass or covering in any way so lots of opportunities for close up photos. Look out for two pictures of the Madonna as you are going round the gallery which showed La Madonna getting ready to hit a nearby devil. Very odd to see her as an action figure.
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The cathedral (deconsecrated I think?) is lovely. It is a bit damaged and must have been a quite gorgeous sight before wear and tear took its toll. Really interesting sets of frescos over the alter which are in such good nick I thought they were modern repairs but apparently they are not – they are by Bernardo Gozzolo. In front it of there is a sort of processional arch – very odd but very striking. They also have something in the cathedral that I have never seen before, a selfie zone in an internal wall of the cathedral (with various frescos etc on the side of the wall behind where you stand so people could take selfies in front of he (reproductions of the) fresoes without stopping those who wanted to enjoy the church – very canny
I see from the Rough Guide book there are a number of other places to visit in Montefalco but this was as far as we got. Bought a coffee at a small restaurant to the right-hand side of the road of the central square (which is more of a circle).
We then had lunch at the restaurant Olevm in Corso Mameli. This street has got a row of shops plus a series of pink bicycles outside each of the shops – not sure if we ever figured out what the bicycles were signifying. I did manage to get double Italian “I spy” points for seeing a nun eating ice cream a she walked past while we were lunching.
Afterwards we visited Eat Montefalco. It was a bit further down on the right and bought some wine, olive oils etc. The woman selling us the wine assured us that since the wine was organic, once opened you had to finish it. It would simply not keep otherwise. It sounds like a great excuse to me.
Passingano sul Trasimeno
We visited here in summer 2022. it took about an hour from house, and it was a very striaghtforward journey. Sadly my appreciation for Passignano was somewhat hampered by the fact that I had to do a series of business calls sitting in a very hot car. However the family really enjoyed the town, and the views from the castle tower. Unsurprisingly, from the name, it sits right on the shores of Lake Trasimeno, so there are walks alongside (and probably a small beach or two) although I did not see these. Parking was initially a bit of a challenge but we found that if you drive through the town, keeping the lake on your right hand side, there is good parking, on the lake side past the centre of the town, and about 5 minutes walk the other side of the centre. Relatively cheap too. Be warned, the town was pretty crowded (late August) and it took a while to find somewhere to eat, so you may want to factor that into your planning
Perugia
30 August 2016
I admit it. I like Perugia. Others are not so keen on it. It can take anything from half an hour to one and a half hours to get there from our house, if you get stuck in traffic on the way in. We get stuck in traffic……
The other thing about Perugia that you need to know is that the car park we have found is probably 15 minutes walk away from the centre of Perugia. Once you get into the centre it is all fairly level, but the walk up from the car park (next to the bus station) can be a bit of a hike. We did find a way of driving right the way up to the old town (which is on a level) before driving back down towards the bus stop. A warning, at some point in the trip to Perugia we picked up a parking ticket for entering a zone that we were not authorised to enter. I could not rule out that it was when we were dropping people off in the very centre of Perugia.
Anyway if you park at the car park it takes 10 to 15 minutes to get back up into the old town. It is quite an interesting walk though because you up through the catacombs and effectively through the old city walls and foundations. If you do that walk it brings you up to one end of what is in essence the ridge of a hill which has the main thoroughfare going from the central square at the top where we drop people (called Piazza Italia from recollection). I think the car park is in Piazza Partigiani.
The guide book that we had says that the Durmo Façade is amazing but the cathedral inside is pretty bare. This is nonsense. It is properly decorated and pretty sinfully I expect for one bought up a Presbyterian.Opposite the cathedral is a staircase leading up to the Sala Notario which is very impressive. If you go up the stairs even if you do not go into the Sala Notario you get lovely views back towards the cathedral. Inside is a lovely old room with coats of arms on the walls and unfortunately some rather intrusive black bars which are probably keeping the walls apart. Lovely stone windows in the morning sunlight when we were there. It would have been lovely to have curled up and read a book. Not permitted I suspect. The blue chairs inside that they have in there just about matches the décor. I think that the heraldic coats of arms are both impressive and fake, but might be wrong about that.
f you walk away from the cathedral back down the main thoroughfare with the Sala Notairo on your right, a few doors down you come to the Galleria Nazionale which is a really good art gallery. I saw this once before (before I started keeping notes of what we did) but it is every bit as good as I remember it. The best paintings are on the top floor I think thus they tend to be the older ones. The floor one down from the top floor goes on and on. I tend to find that I get a bit art-ed out before the end. One day I will come back and start on the middle floor to do it properly. We had lunch in a restaurant on the left-had side as you back down the thoroughfare away from the cathedral. Nothing special. The waiter was a Columbian guy (aged 30) who worked all over Europe, spoke 6 to 7 languages and who was off to Portugal the following week looking for more work. He was more impressive than the food
26 August 2017
We came back to Perugia and visited the Palazzo Baldeschi. We stumbled on it because it is not terribly well advertised and it is on the left-hand side of the thoroughfare about one third of the way along. Has a not very good (i.e. do not bother) permanent art collection (including – and I promise I am not making this up – an exhibition on majolica as used in chemist shops). The temporary exhibition that we saw (From Giotto to Morandi) was well worth seeing. Some lovely early medieval art in the early rooms.
We walked up to the Etruscan well which is was a little space on the right past the Duomo. Go around this cathedral to the right (which incidentally reveals the front door of the church). The museum is a house museum but is well worth a visit.
I also found Musica (a CD shop) which is off Via Gugliemo Oberdan (number 51) basically turn right until you find the road that runs parallel to the central thoroughfare on the right-hand side of it as you are looking up towards the cathedral. This is Via Baglioni. There are quite a lot of little shops in there. The Via Oberdan crosses it Musica has a good vinyl section and quite a wide range of music. They obviously have a problem with theft because the CDs are practically glued into the racks, so you have to get someone to get them out for you if you want to buy anything. Who steals CDs these days? You can get it all for free online. Anyway definitely worth checking out if you want to buy some local music or just fancy a change to whatever you are listening to. When I visited in summer 2021 they were playing the first Big Country record. Which is pretty good going for a Perugia record shop I thought.
Last thought from today. In the Sala Notario there is a picture of a dog jumping off a castle wall into the sea. I could not find anything out about why they would have that picture there. Answers on a postcard?
The other piece of advice is do not follow your sat nav out of Perugia. It made for some very hairy driving.
We had lunch in one of the side roads off Pietro Vannucci (I cannot remember whether it was Vie Giuseppe Mazzii (half way down that connecting road leading through to Vie Ballione that I mentioned earlier). You can eat outside. We had lunch next to a family who was explaining to their very young daughter how her best friend has got cancer and was going to lose all of her hair. The daughter they were speaking to must have been all of five years old – some life lesson.
30 August 2017
We visited Perugia this evening with friends for dinner. Lovely atmosphere, very mellow, relaxed and people having a really good time. Very different atmosphere from the atmosphere during the day. We ate at the Osteria Priori which is just off Corsa Vannucci on the left-hand side. Absolutely beautiful food.
Summer 2021
Perugia seems to grow on people. Even my wife who was initially a bit unimpressed is more likely to agree to a visit when we are in the area. The big treat this time was visiting the MANU museum which is the Museo Archeologico Nazionalle di Umbria. Definitely worth a visit in its own right but it turned out they were hosting a student masterclass course in the museum, so I sat in on the lesson, with the various pianists being put through their paces. Really interesting, and in fact I came back for the final concert a few days later, and listened to three different pieces, all played to a high standard. Typical that the concert was free, open to all and advertised nowhere other than the noticeboard inside the museum. That’s Italy! Pianist was doing Mozart K331, which came over really well.
Spring 2023
If you have visited the Galleria Nazionale, the good news is that it has been extensively rehung and renovated – definitely worth a visit if you have not been since 2022. They have added a specific floor for their Peruginos, so do pay it a visit.
I also stumbled on the Capella di San Severo, which is basically a single room with a pretty impressive fresco partly by Raphael. So if you fancy a bite sized bit of culture and can find your way to the little church, do give it a go. It is about 7 minutes walk up hill from the main square, past the duomo. Don’t go right and start to drop down. it is straight up the hill with the Augustinian gate and some spectacular views further on up the hill. Worth the walk I promise!
Pienza
27 August 2017
This takes about an hour and 40 minutes to get to and it goes very near Cortona and pretty close to Chiusi and Montefalco. If you come back via Chiusi then you end up driving along the south of Lake Trasimeno. Although I was keen to do this visit I have to confess that I was a bit disappointed with Pienza. It was built in a short period of time in the fifteenth century and it feels like it. All quite planned. Not quite a new town feel but it is very ordered, a bit too pretty, too twee for my liking with none of the organic growth that comes where somewhere grows up over a period of time, and is created by the people who live there and how they use the town. The old town itself is tiny and has no real depth to it. The best way of describing it is to say it feels a bit like a film set for tourists. It takes about 15 minutes to walk around the City walls, for example.
The cathedral in the main square is fine. Some nice gothic gold paintings hanging inside. It is quite small for a cathedral. The most disturbing bit is the rather worrying slope downwards from the main door towards the alter which is disconcerting especially if you look at the cracks along the floor you can see the church is under pressure and is probably sliding slowly down the hill.
I then went to look at the diocesan museum which is supposed to have some good paintings but it was shut – on Tuesdays – a point to note.
The church of San Francesco is down the road. Nothing to report on this at all. Frescos were very damaged. One of them is quite striking – Luca Signorelli but there is not a lot to see. I could have gone around the Ducal Palace as well but decided on this occasion that having a coffee and reading the paper would win out.
It is about 45 minutes’ drive to Chiusi from here – and on the occasion we drove it, we did it with Italian drivers who either drove 20% under the speed limit or disregarded it altogether and tailgated with gay abandon until I pulled over to let them past.
Spello
31 August 2017
I went to Spello, having dropped one of our guests at Perugia airport, to go and explore this on my own. It took about 20 minutes from the airport to Spello. Word of advice. do not take the Spello Nord town exit but keep going to the next exit. It then takes you into the part of the town where you need to park.
Note that the central car parks seem to require change in coins. So do not travel with notes/credit cards only. However there is a free car park about 400 yards beyond two paying car parks and that works just fine.
Spello is a lovely old town. It is what Pienza is not – bit rough and ready, higgledy piggledy but with plenty of character but also sadly some earthquake damage from 2016. This is the first time I had seen any evidence of that disaster in the region. The main square itself half way up the main road is still being worked on – partly upgrade and partly repair works (I think). It is quite steep in places – think Cortona.
The roads are rarely straight very bendy and narrow in places – very picturesque. They have a flower festival here in May/June which I imagine would be fantastic.
I found the Chiesa Santa Maria Maggiore, which is a lovely little church. Quite a stunning chapel on the left with frescos by Pinturrichio – beautiful stuff and in good condition. The chapel in which the frescos are located is the size of a small room but the walls are totally covered with frescos. There are majolica tiles on the floor (which in turn are covered with a glass floor, so that you are walking over the majolica tiles which is a bit disorientating at first).
The ceiling has four sibyls painted. Each of their heads pointed to the centre of the roof. There are many other figures shown and my favourite detail was that one of the shepherds is missing a front tooth (if you look closely). Well worth the requested donation of €2. It is a pity that no photos are permitted here. Worse still, the remaining frescos in the church were still shut off because of the earthquake damage. Nothing to be done about that and given that I had been overwhelmed by the chapel which frankly would have been more than enough by itself, I just made a resolution to come back another time.
I then walked up a further way past the central square (tiny and all dug up) and passed the church which was described as “an architectural hodgepodge” in my guidebook (yup not a lot to see here). I like the carved wooden gallery at the back of the church on the right-hand side as you enter.
The church of St Andrea and the museum were both closed on Monday.
I then kept going up the hill until I got to a little church (which is next to the Capucchin Friars House) and which is totally missing from the guidebook. It was a lovely little church and it seems to be open for tourists. Very simple frescos on the ceiling and the windows had yellow glass in so there was diffused light throughout the church. Beautiful and peaceful. If you are looking for it, it is next to the Porta dell’arce – which is in the guidebook.
Lovely views from the front of this church down over the valley. Had a coffee in the coffee shop on the right-hand side coming back down towards the town square.
Note there is a walking tour guidebook for Spello. Good exercise – definitely worth a visit I think .
1 September 2017
When back to Spello today because I enjoyed it so much I wanted to share it with my wife. Got to see the Pinacotecca – definitely worth a visit. As the only person there – the woman behind the counter who sold me a ticket had left her handbag on the other side of the room so she was clearly not worried about a flood of visitors coming in and someone making off with it.
The early paintings in there are better than the later ones – as is usually the case I find. But plenty to enjoy and a pleasure to wander round without being bothered by anyone else
I found a new car park at the bottom of the city walls. Although you can pay for as long as you want, you are only supposed to stay for one hour. I am not sure whether they check or not?
We also found the Enotecca Properzio which is a wine bar, cellar, restaurant combined with very persuasive sales staff. Just before the cathedral on the right hand side – One enters with caution. One leaves slightly poorer. One retreats to Valliano to enjoy…
Todi (summer 2022)
We had visited Todi, 7 or 8 years previously, when we were staying in southern Umbria but this was the first time you driven to it from our house. The journey took just under 75 minutes, and was very straightforward. We parked in the carpark which had a cable car leading up to the Parco Fluvial. The sign to the car park was to “cheap parking” and was round to the right of the hilltop from the road leading up to the main gate into the old town. The walk into the main square only takes about 10 minutes, once you have come up in the cable car, and the cable car journey itself was two or three minutes long and operated on demand.
On the way to main square (Piazza del popolo) you pass the church of San Fortunato, which is definitely worth a visit. The façade is pretty striking and, to my mind at least, it looks like two different churches built one on top of another. That feeling of slight schizophrenia is maintained inside Gothic and Roman style architecture. When we visited there was a young guy playing acoustic guitar (unamplified) in the centre of the church. The two things that really struck me were the amazing acoustics meant that his playing was completely clear even if you are standing 20 or 30 yards away. Secondly, as is customary, he had an open guitar case and people left money for him, but obviously there was a high degree of trust because the guitar case was near the main door and he was sitting about 30 yards away. Not a site you are ever likely to see for a London busker.
We also visited church of Nunziata which is behind the main cathedral. It is tiny and very ornate which may or may not be your thing, however it is definitely worth a visit given the extensive frescoes which cover almost every surface
The main cathedral has some lovely stained glass windows but also a blatant rip-off of the Sistine Chapel over main entrance to the church. I have not checked to see whether this debt is admitted, or whether I am risking a libel action by saying this but it does seem pretty clear where they got their inspiration from.
Had lunch at a restaurant in the side streets of Todi, called Vineria San Fortunato, in piazza Umbertide 1. Excellent salads and a good shady spot to watch people and cars navigating the narrow streets. the spatial awareness of the average Italian must be truly off the scale.
Tavernelle August 2023
I drove to this small town. It took about an hour and twenty minutes but I avoided the roadworks around Perugia, so I think if you went directly (via Pierantonio turn off,) you would probably do it slightly more quickly. It is quite out of the way and really the only reason given in the guide book was to visit Sanuario di Santa Maria di Mongiovino. Do make use of satnav to find your way there, as I did not notice a lot of signs pointing the way. I was there are the end of August and it was completely deserted. Be warned that the door to enter was on the other side from the car park, and had been left ajar only, (presumably because of the heat). The church inside is spectacular with lots of lovely frescoes and you could easily spend 30 minutes just spotting the details. I think that on of the frescos in the roof which looks like the angel is standing looking down at you, with a foot protruding out from the painted space, actually has a foot built to point out from the paining. I might be making that up but if so it is a brilliant little detail beyond the usual complexities of messing around with perspective. The convent surrounding the front? of the church (the way I went into it) looks like a film set, or indeed some of the Muslim temples we saw in India, which have a spectuacular frontage but no depth behind the front. Definitely recommended but probably to combine with something else in the area (unless like me, you think a 2.5 hour round trip to look at a church is time well spent….
Torgiano
28 August 2017
The drive probably takes an hour. You are almost back at the airport again. The Lungarotti vineyard shop/site which we visited previously now it seems shut to visitors but if you visit the museum of wine in Torgiano itself, there is a Lungarotti shop next to it. Highly recommended. The last time we visited the shop (sadly I was driving,) an awful lot of wine tasting was done by the party followed by the inevitable purchases of more wine than we had gone in there to buy.
The ticket to the Museum of Wine also covers the Museum of Olive oil which is in the parallel street further on up the road heading into town.
The Museum of Wine was really interesting from all the words associated with cultivation/wine making we have in regular usage now, to examples of all the wine presses etc. From recollection there are about 20 rooms in the museum. It is bigger than you think.
The wine shop next door also sells other bits and pieces, corkscrews, some majolica stuff etc. The woman who was manning the shop on the day we went in spoke limited English so my Italian was given a good workout. She explained she had fractured her wrist and had a titanium plate and screws installed. She was now going to have to have the operation redone because it had not worked. At least she made some money out of our visit.
The Olive oil Museum is a similar size and equally interesting. One of the tiny exhibits was a miniature amphora for olive oil which had been made at the time of the earliest Greek and Persian wars. It certainly made you think when you saw the pristine quality of the amphora.
We had lunch at the restaurant just up the road from the wine museum and will were showered with free crisps to go with the Highlander crisps we had found on sale in a local supermarket. Why the Highlands are associated with crisps?
There is a lovely wine shop/delicatessen on the other side of the road facing the wine museum with a great extensive collection of wines and we visited that as well.