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Reviews from VirtualTourist Members

Best time to travel to Umbria?

by Trekki

Now we come to the most difficult question: what is the best time to travel through Umbria. Even if my April time was very much rainy, I loved it. It was the time of magic light settings following the massive rains. It was quiet and very much relaxed. In many villages I was the only tourist (definitely the only non-Italian). Everything was open, prices were lower than in summer. However, a bit later, end of April or early May would or might have been a better time. But for nothing in the world I would want to have missed these light scenarios!! Summer is maybe too hot, too crowded and too expensive. Not that Umbria is expensive, but the prices increase in summer. And the probability to find a bed is not that good unless you have a reservation. But Umbria is definitely better to explore by “strolling” and not see only 2-3 villages.However, Piano Grande has the most marvellous flower...

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Further websites for trip planning

by Trekki

Apart from the famous and lesser famous cities and villages with arts and cultures and festivals, one of the main reason for travelling to Umbria is the food. The by far best website for inspiration with what Umbria has to offer is:Delicious ItalyThis does contain themed intineraries (olive oil, wine, truffles, lentils and many more) and also suggestions of where to eat and the typical products of the cities and villages.Another excellent website is the one of Slowtravel. That's a website entirely devoted to travelling for the soul. The stories are often related to Umbria's gorgeous food.Another nice website is Life in Umbria with details to the local festivals. In Italian, but nevertheless easy to understand is Umbria Arte which is dedicated to art and culture and special ways of travel, like spiritual travel.While writing this, I found another very special kind of tours which are...

Still very much earthquake damage (after'97)

by Trekki

The most horrible days in Umbria’s recent history were September 26 and 27, 1997. This was when an earthquake (5,7 on Richter scale) hit Umbria (epicentre was near Foligno). 8 people died, thousands were unsheltered. And the roof of Basilica San Francesco Superiore collapsed. Most tragic was that two monks and two technicians who were cleaning up dump from a former “light” earthquake inside the basilika died under the debris of the collapsing roof. The technicians belonged to a TV team who had planned to record part of the cleanup, so a video of this is existing. It shows how horrible the earthquake must have been. Luckily, thousands of people worldwide donated and conservators came to work as volunteers to help restoring the Cimabue frescos. They did an amazing job, sieving more than 1200 tons of debris and sorting out around 300.000 pieces to restore the work. Only 2 years after the...

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Eyes up: there are frescos everywhere

by Trekki

Among the many fascinating sights in Umbria are frescos. Now one would think this is normal, as Italy is famous for its frescos and yes, many churches have magnificent ones to admire. But they are not only in churches, but also everywhere else: on walls, in vaulted passages, on buildings, inside buildings. I first realised it in Fabriano (which is Marche, but very close to Umbria) when I saw several frescos on walls and then inside of a huge roofed street (photo 5). The more I strolled through the backstreets not only in Fabriano but in the Umbrian towns, the more I found. Many of them did suffer over time or maybe due to the earthquakes, Umbria has to face once in a while. So watch out and look up from time to time, you might miss marvellous sights otherwise.

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Umbria’s solid brown gold: truffles

by Trekki

Truffles, already the name sounds like music in our ears, doesn’t it? Umbria accounts for 80% of Italy’s truffle “production”, well truffle find is the better term. I’ve read that 8 black and 2 white truffle varieties are native to Umbria, mostly in the hills above 300 m. Unlike in other countries, Umbria’s truffle hunters work with dogs and not with pigs. They claim that the pigs would rumple the ground too much which might reduce the chances that new truffles would grow at the old places. There was even a truffle dog university in Roddi, Piemonte, but it had to close in 1960 when the founder’s family didn’t want to continue the founds. Throughout the whole year, you can find truffle dishes on Umbria’s restaurant menus and I also tried some while I was there. It was even the first time that I tried them and yes, they are very much delicious. But unlike with asparagus and olive oil, I...

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Umbria’s solid red gold: sausages

by Trekki

I already mentioned the delicious sausages of Norcia quite often. Norcia is Italy’s capital for the best and most delicious sausages. And this dates back deep into the Medieval times, when the people of this region were already making good sausages from pork and wild boar. But being innovative, they worked on the recipes in winter and improved quality and taste. This was the time when they started to travel all over Italy and sell their products. The sausages became so famous, everyone wanted to have them, and eventually the butchers Italywide were renamed “Norcinis”. Nowadays, Norcinis not only use pork meat but also wild boar meat, and have experimented even more with spices and other delicious ingredients. I can testify that the wild boar ones are very excellent and I am really looking forward to my next trip to Umbria… from that point of view I could never become a proper...

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Umbria’s liquid red gold: Sagrantino

by Trekki

Umbria is famous for two wines: red Sagrantino and white Orvieto. (oh well, this reminds me that I completely forgot to plan a tip about Orvieto wine….)Sagrantino is so famous that there is even a special website devoted to this wine:La Strada del SagrantinoIf you look at this website (where it says enter) you can see that Sagrantino grapes are mostly found around Bevagna and Montefalco. The history of these grapes is quite interesting, although it is not yet clear where they were brought from. But they date back to the 16th century and the wine was mostly made and drunk my the monks, thus the name Sagrantino, which is believed to have its origin in “sacrament”. Montefalco’s Sagrantino received the D.O.C.G. in 1992 and is thus the 12th Italian wine with this quality label.It is difficult to name or pick out the best winery, all are excellent. The website above provides many wine cellars...

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Umbria’s liquid green gold: olive oil

by Trekki

When you travel through Valle Umbra, you will always be surrounded by olive trees. Even if you look at this part of Umbria on Google Earth you will see olive groves all over the region (my screenshot in photo 2). Oilve oil is certainly Umbria’s liquid green gold. You can buy it almost everywhere in Bevagna, Montefalco, Trevi, Spello, Assisi and many more of the villages here or directly at one of the manufacturers. On Slow Travel’s website is a good article of what to consider before buying olive oil and it also explains places to buy it (it is a combination of Toscana and Umbria places).Very important however is to look for the labels:D.O.C. = denominazione di origine controllata (denomination of/with controlled origin), and even higher isD.O.C.G. = denominazione di origine controllata e garantita (denomination of/with controlled origin and guaranteed) which guarantees that you have...

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Slow food – or the discovery of dishes’ soul

by Trekki

When the first McD place was about to open in Italy, a group of people in Piemonte were so furious with this act of sacrileg in Italy that they founded the opposite, called “Slow Food”. It soon became a big movement throughout whole Italy and also in some other parts of the planet. Their major goal is to preserve the local specialities and also regain cultivation of heirloom specialities. The most fascinating example here is saffron in Cascia. Slowfood’s website mentions that saffron was very popular near Cascia in 16th and 17th century, but over the years almost got extinguished. Initiatives by local farmers made it possible that by now it is cultivated on 22 farms and yields in approx. 3 kg per year. 150.000 flowers are needed to produce 1 kg of dried stems. Each g costs about 25 €. There is even a Saffron Fair held each October in Cascia. I can certainly judge that Umbria's saffron is...

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Hilltop castles and villages in abundance

by Trekki

At a point in time I stopped counting. There are just too many of these little or bigger villages or castles which sit high on top of a hill or are clogged at a slope. All of them have this special atmosphere of old Medieval times, many houses and palaces are ages old. Some can be visited, some not. There is a church in every village and many of them have treasures you would never imagine to find in these tiny hardly known villages.I can only encourage you to leave the roads, drive high up into a village you see and get yourself surprised by what you find!My photos are only a brief summary of the hardly known villages.

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Related Umbria Favorites Tips

Top 3 Hotels in Umbria

La Terrazza  Assisi

 1 Review and 191 Opinions  Nice quiet hotel. The dinner in the hotel was very nice and so was the breakfast. Very nice, homey... 

 Hotels in Assisi

Palazzo Piccolomini  Orvieto

 2 Reviews and 96 Opinions  This hotel was really neat and very fun to stay in. The staff was very accomodating and the rooms... 

 Hotels in Orvieto

Brufani Palace  Perugia

 1 Review and 189 Opinions  We stayed at hotel "Park", which is four stars hotel on outskirt of the town. Our Umbria Jazz... 

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532 Hotels in Umbria
 
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Reviews and photos of Umbria attractions posted by real travelers and locals. The best tips for Umbria sightseeing.

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Favorites: Cities in Umbria
  1. Orvieto Favorites
  2. Assisi Favorites
  3. Perugia Favorites
  4. Gubbio Favorites
  5. Todi Favorites
  6. Spoleto Favorites
  7. Bevagna Favorites
  8. San Leo Favorites
  9. Norcia Favorites
  10. Le Marmore Favorites
  11. Trevi Favorites

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Questions and Answers

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Q:  We are trying to make reservations for the Rezidenza di via Piccardi in Gubbio in Umbria for late September. We have gone to the... 

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A: On their web site where it says Contatti, click and send them an e-mail unless you want to telephone. If you don't speak Italian, write in English and I'm sure they'll... 

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May 27, 2012 
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