Umbria trip planner

A vacation guide to the best of Umbria, Italy

Umbria is called the "Green Heart of Italy," a landlocked region of forested mountains, art-filled hilltowns, deep lakes, and a mystical past reflected in its prodigious output of both saints (St. Francis of Assisi chief among them) and of artists with a limpid, ethereal style (notably Perugino and his greatest protégé, Raphael).

Umbria is, in some ways, the most Italian region in all of Italy, if only for this quirky factoid: Umbria is the only region in Italy that is completely surrounded by Italy. It is the only region that does not share a border with another country or with the open sea.

Long second banana to its more famous neighbor to the west, Tuscany, Umbria has become something of a not-Tuscany for discerning visitors over the past few decades. Like Tuscany, it is a central Italian region filled with great art, fine wines, excellent hearty cuisine, ancient Etruscan and Roman remains, and medieval hilltowns graced with with Gothic and Renaissance frescoes—but it suffers smaller crowds and somewhat lower prices than does chichi Tuscany.

As for details on Umbria, I confess those will have to wait. They are coming, but as of yet this section is barely started—though there is a page on Assisi. Frankly, I just needed a placeholder page here for links.

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