3 Nights in Perugia and Gubbio

It looks from your other posts about this trip that you’re traveling in May. Just be aware that there’s a major feast day on May 15 in Gubbio. It would be neat to see IMO but the town will be packed.

https://www.italiaslowtour.com/st-ubaldo-day-candles-of-gubbio/

My husband and I went one year the day after the festival and got to see just the tail end of some of the festivities. Gubbio is a stunning town. The civic museum is quite nice. I’m less of a fan of Perugia but I appreciate that it makes for a good transportation hub (and lots of other people like it). We’ve always traveled by car in Umbria so I can’t comment on your plan otherwise.

If you’re in Amalfi during the warm weather, we preferred taking the ferry boat from Amalfi to Salerno. Then just walk up a few blocks to the train station. We gave ourselves plenty of time and had a light lunch at the train station deli.

I had some wonderful experiences in Perugia - especially the stained glass laboratory!, and the mini-metro unmanned tram is wonderful to take you from the train station up into the old center. Here’s my trip report from June 2022. Perugia is towards the end of the trip:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-please-do-not-comment-until-i-change-the-title-filling-in-the-report-thanks

Yes, the train and bus station are very close in Salerno. Easy transfer.
I stayed in Perugia and went to Gubbio as a day trip which was fine. Gubbio is pretty small and I don’t see the benefit of checking in and out of hotels for just one night. You will already be spending a lot of your time traveling from Salerno to Perugia (about 5-6 hours) and then to Lucca will be another long haul.

Those are some long train rides. Just throwing out some options that might be much less time than heading to Umbria, but just for ideas - do whatever appeals to you! I won’t include the obvious Tuscany ones which you probably already have been.

Salerno has a quick train ride to see Paestum - amazing Greek ruins!
Caserta has a huge palace & grounds - think Versailles scale.

Two years ago, we spent 9 nights in Perugia and 6 nights in Gubbio, and enjoyed both places very much. However, we had a car and were going on day trips. Last year, we traveled around western Tuscany and the hinterlands of Liguria (i.e. not the coast), and stayed in or visited many towns that you might like equally well as Perugia and Gubbio, and without the long travel by train/bus.

Take a look at the Tuscan towns of Tarquinia, Pitigliano, Massa Marittima, and (2 hours by train from Lucca), Pontremoli. I'm sure others here can suggest more towns. Pontremoli was one of our very favorite towns in Italy. It would help to know what your interests are --- ours are Romanesque and Gothic churches, medieval & early Renaissance art, ancient art & architecture, local food (my husband's #1 interest), and interesting historical town centers. We loved Gubbio, but I wouldn't want you to go so far out of your way without a compelling set of reasons (and we will plan whole trips just so that I get to see a certain fresco or he gets to eat or drink a certain thing).

Nancy, thank you for opening my eyes about the travel time. Adding Perugia and Gubbio adds a few hours of travel time. I'm doing a 26 night trip. The trip begins March 28th. Naples (4), Sorrento (3), Capri (3), Amalfi (4), Lucca (3), Moterosso al Mare (3), Santa Margherita Ligure (2), Turin (1, fly home).

So I have 3 nights to fill and given the long ride from Amalfi to Lucca, I figured I would go someplace in between and Perugia and Gubbio caught my attention. Perugia for the National Gallery (renaissance and medieval paintings) and Gubbio for it's mediaval look. Another guide book calls Gubbio Italy's most mediaval looking town. This past April I considered doing a day trip from Arezzo to Perugia but went to Sansepolcro (Piero della Francesca fan) instead. So I've had Perugia in my sight for a while.

Rome or Florence would make sense but I've spent like 12 nights in each since 2019.