★ Town · Assisi and the Umbrian ValleyBevagnaA village on the plain, intact within its walls, with one of the most harmonious Romanesque squares in Italy and a Roman mosaic of sea monsters in the ancient baths.
The storyIn the Middle Ages Bevagna was divided into four quarters, the “gaite”, each with its own trades. Every June since 1989, the Mercato delle Gaite has recreated the workshops of the 13th and 14th centuries with scholarly rigour: you can watch paper, silk, wax candles and glass being made by hand, using methods documented in the archives.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Town · Perugia and Lake TrasimenoCittà della PieveA red-brick village on a hill between Lake Trasimeno and the Valdichiana, with one of the narrowest alleys in Italy, the Vicolo Baciadonne (“Kiss-the-women Lane”).
The storyPietro Vannucci, known as Perugino and the teacher of Raphael, was born here around 1450. The oratory of Santa Maria dei Bianchi holds his Adoration of the Magi, painted in 1504 for the town's confraternity, and next to it are displayed the letters in which the painter and the brothers haggled over the price of the work.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Terni, Narni and ValnerinaNarniA medieval town above the gorges of the River Nera, with the ruined Roman Bridge of Augustus and a hidden world beneath its streets.
The storyIn 1979 a group of young cavers, climbing down among the ruins beneath the convent of San Domenico, discovered a frescoed underground church, a Roman cistern and a room used by the court of the Inquisition: the walls of the cell still bear the graffiti and symbols carved by prisoners in the 18th century. It is also said that C.S. Lewis took the name Narnia from the town's ancient Latin name.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Town · Assisi and the Umbrian ValleyFolignoA mountain village crossed by streams, little waterfalls and channels that run beneath the houses and past the old mills.
The storyFor centuries the springs that rise above the village drove mills, fulling mills and wool dyeing and weaving workshops, which made Rasiglia a small centre of crafts. After the depopulation of the 20th century, residents restored the channels and some workshops: today it is called “the little Venice of Umbria”.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Terni, Narni and ValnerinaFerentilloTwo villages facing each other across the Valnerina, with rock faces loved by climbers and a very unusual crypt.
The storyIn the crypt of the church of Santo Stefano, used as a cemetery until the 19th century, the bodies buried in the earth mummified naturally, thanks to the soil and the dry air. Today the crypt is a small museum with dozens of mummies still in their clothes, which has drawn the curious and scholars alike for centuries.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Nature · Perugia and Lake TrasimenoTuoro sul TrasimenoThe only inhabited island on Lake Trasimeno: a fishing village with a single street, olive groves and a path that loops around the island.
The storyAccording to tradition Saint Francis spent Lent of 1211 here, fasting. In 1904 the Marchioness Elena Guglielmi brought “Irish point” needle lace to the island, and its women still make it in front of their houses. On the opposite shore, in 217 BC, Hannibal wiped out the Roman army at the Battle of Lake Trasimene.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Nature · Gubbio and Upper UmbriaGubbioA narrow limestone gorge just above Gubbio, where the layers of the mountain are exposed like the pages of a book.
The storyAmong the layers is a thin band of clay marking the boundary between the Cretaceous and the Paleogene, 66 million years ago. In 1980 the geologist Walter Alvarez and his father Luis, a Nobel laureate in physics, found an anomalous amount of iridium right here, a metal rare on Earth but common in asteroids: this discovery gave rise to the theory of the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Terni, Narni and ValnerinaSan GeminiThe ruins of a Roman town among meadows, crossed by the original paving stones of the Via Flaminia, with the Arch of San Damiano, the forum, the theatre and the amphitheatre.
The storyCarsulae grew up along the Via Flaminia, the great road between Rome and the Adriatic, and flourished in imperial times. It was later abandoned, perhaps after an earthquake and the shift of traffic to another branch of the road, and was never built over: that is why its layout has remained as legible as in few other places in central Italy.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Terni, Narni and ValnerinaFerentilloA stone abbey leaning against the mountainside above the Valnerina, with a Romanesque bell tower and a cloister.
The storyIt was founded in the early 8th century by Faroald II, Lombard duke of Spoleto, who according to tradition retired here to live as a monk after being deposed by his son. The church holds a Lombard altar signed by the sculptor Ursus and a cycle of 12th-century Romanesque frescoes that ranks among the most important in Italy.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Assisi and the Umbrian ValleyCampello sul ClitunnoA small lake of crystal-clear spring water among willows and poplars and, a little further north along the river, a small marble temple shaped like a classical one.
The storyThe springs were already sacred to the Romans and were described by Virgil, Pliny the Younger and, many centuries later, by Byron and by Carducci, who celebrated them in an ode in 1876. The little temple looks Roman, but it was built in the early Middle Ages from reused pieces of ancient buildings: since 2011 it has been part of the UNESCO site “The Longobards in Italy”.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Gubbio and Upper UmbriaCittà di CastelloA Renaissance town in the upper Tiber Valley with one of the largest contemporary art museums in Italy devoted to a single artist.
The storyAlberto Burri was born here in 1915. An army doctor, he began painting in a prisoner-of-war camp in Texas and became one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, known for his works in sacking, burnt plastic and cracked surfaces (cretti). His works are shown at Palazzo Albizzini and in the Ex Seccatoi del Tabacco, huge former tobacco-drying sheds that he chose to paint black.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →