A week in Umbria

We spent two wonderful weeks in Umbria, based in Spello. We had a car but there is a train station there.

You can also add Gubbio to the visits.
It's a medieval town. When you arrive, it's like arriving in 1360, so well preserved. We liked it very much.
Orvieto is wonderful, the cathedral is one of the most impressive I've ever seen.
I have not been to Spoleto or Todi(which seems to be in a lot of guidebooks). Perugia's main piazza is absolulty beautiful.
I've been to Umbria a few times while visiting Toscany as well.
I guess if you only do Umbria and want to day trip easily, you can choose to be physically centered.
I guess Perugia would be my choice then.

Thanks for the tips. We will also spend a week in Rome. We plan to fly to Rome, do that city and then Umbria, before heading back to the USA on a TransAtlantic cruise. We save on airfare and TA cruises are inexpensive.

We spent the weekend in Orvieto last May before our South of Italy tour. We took the train there from FCO and then took the train back to Rome for the start of our tour. We really enjoyed the town. We stayed at Casa Selita B&B (in Rick's book) which is a lovely B&B just outside of the old city - you can walk thru their olive grove up to the street and then it is a short walk to the elevator/escalator up to town. There are many good restaurants in town - we ended up going with the recommendations we got at breakfast each morning and they did not disappoint. I came home with a beautiful hand-painted ceramic plate from Ceramiche Giacomini which is directly across from the Duomo. Enoteca Barberani also across from the Duomo, recommended by our B&B is worth a visit (enoteca means "wine shop"). It is possible to take a bus over to Civita di Bagnoregio. There are numerous wineries in the area but I'm not sure how you'd get to them without transportation. We liked Orvieto so much that this year we're doing Village Italy and we'll be in Orvieto for my husband's 60th birthday.

We spent 5 nights in Assisi in autumn of 2017 and loved it. Wish we had stayed longer! We rented a lovely apartment here http://www.brigolante.com/en/town. Rebecca's blog (see the link in the site for the apartments) was also a great help in planning our time.

We also spent a week in Spello in December one year staying here http://www.casaspello.com/, but Assisi was, for us, a better base. We did not have a car for either trip.

Some will say it is a pain to get to the train station in Assisi but we found the bus easy and used taxis a couple of times ( when we had luggage).

Orvieto's beautiful, but it's outside the mainstream of Umbria (sorry, I'm speaking as a perugino). If you aren't driving, I'd use Perugia, Assisi, or Spoleto as a base. Perugia has the most convenient train and bus connections, because it's the regional capital. From there you can take trains or buses almost everywhere. My list of places? It really depends on the season, because as it warms up, there are natural places to experience. But if you're looking at towns, my to-see list would be: Perugia, Assisi, Gubbio, Spello, Trevi, Spoleto. For a more nature-oriented experience, head to Passignano sul Lago, hang out there or take a ferry to Isola Maggiore, where you can hike around the island, enjoying incredible views, and then treat yourself to a decadent lunch at a restaurant near the ferry landing. Spello is just incredibly charming, with polished pink stones, some art, flowers everywhere, and a few really interesting places to eat. Gubbio has an amazing main piazza, an interesting museum, and a hair-raising cable car ride that's more like a ski lift with birdcages. Spoleto is stunning and has great shopping, an archeological museum worth a visit, and incredible views from atop the fort--you take elevators up to the top. And a plug for my hometown, Perugia. It's a college town, vibrant and young, with lots of places to hang out, a few good restaurants, and is perfect for spending lazy days walking around the old town, having a drink, seeing some art, both Renaissance and modern. If you're there mid-July, there's the Umbria Jazz festival, during which the city turns into a giant party. And it's not just jazz--we're seen REM, Brian Wilson, Caetano Veloso, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. Bottom line? Umbria's great. And relatively un-touristy.

I had the most wonderful experience living in Orvieto for 18 months. But I drove everywhere. I'd vote for Perugia as a home base. You really can't go wrong with any of those locations, although I found Assisi the most touristy of them all.

Absolutely love Umbria. Perugia makes a very good base as you can access numerous buses and trains from there to other locations in Umbria. Having said that, I think just about anywhere in Umbria is beautiful. Orvieto is makes a good base for a visit to Civita di Bagnoregio, but it is wonderful on its own. Assisi is gorgeous, but not as good for transportation since the train station is in the lower town. Still, an overnight stay there is highly recommended. We also loved our daytrips to Spello and Gubbio.

In Perugia we stayed at Hotel Fortuna, https://www.hotelfortunaperugia.com/.

In Orvieto, B&B La Magnolia, http://www.bblamagnolia.it/?lang=en.

In Assisi, Hotel Pallotta, http://www.hotelpallotta.it/en/ (they also have a very good restaurant).

Buon Viaggio.

Gubbio is beautiful, but not served by train. Per Google Maps, you can take bus E001 or E022 from Perugia: http://www.fsbusitalia.it/. I would try a different route in each direction.

We did something similar. Stayed in Perugia, then drove to Orvieto, stopping in Spello and Montefalco on the way. If I had know how beautiful Spello was, I would have stayed there instead of Perugia. Definitely stay in Orvieto!

Here is where we stayed in Perugia https://www.bed-and-breakfast.it/it/umbria/garden-house-perugia/10658

Here is where we stayed in Orvieto https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/21488431?wl_source=list&wl_id=251861932&role=wishlist_owner&adults=1&guests=1