Perugia - how bad are the steps?

Public escalators and elevators can be a big help in Perugia depending on where you are coming from and going. I remember that there is an escalator from the train station up to the center of town, for example. If I remember correctly, the center of town itself is not too hilly. Before booking a place to stay, you might check with them to ask. If you are able to stay someplace with a helpful host or concierge, or get to a tourist information center, you should be able to get directions on how to navigate using the escalators and avoid some of the steeper steps and hills.. Gubbio, which is a nice day trip by bus from Perugia, also makes use of public escalators.

The Pincetto Minimetro is a tram that easily takes you up the hill. There are several stops with a parking lot at the bottom. Once at the top, you still need to do some uphill walking, but not too much. There is a stop near the train station l

Thank you for the replies.

This is what I wrote about my hotel & the mini-metro during my 2022 trip. There’s some very steep streets in Perugia, but the location of my hotel was on a relatively flat plane surface region - almost like walking along the spine with some side streets steeply going downward. From this area, there was a nice small park to head to after picking up a gelato, to enjoy the panoramic view of the countryside. Also the piazza with the huge fountain & cathedral is up on this “spine”.

”For Perugia, I stayed at a modern hotel, Locanda della Posta Boutique Hotel. I slept very well there, and they were very conscientious about Covid cleanliness at their wonderful breakfast, timed for lots of space between diners. Perugia’s mini metro - the auto-boxes similar to a funicular on the ground were so handy to get from the train station up into the historic city! This hotel was easy to walk to from the last mini metro station.”

I wouldn’t stay way down at the train station. Enjoy the historical center atmosphere and just take the mini-metro back down, down, down when you’re wanting to access the train station.

The mini metro was a lifesaver…once we discovered it. We liked our stay at the Hotel Sant'Ercolano. It is a small, modest but comfortable hotel rather near the Pincetto mini metro stop. When we stayed it included breakfast but I’m not sure that remains the case. Our room had a small balcony looking across toward Assisi. We liked it a lot, and it was very reasonably priced. We traveled by train and bus three days from Perugia (Assisi, Spoleto and Gubbio) and as I recall the metro took us to the station. Good luck.

I was in Perugia 3 weeks ago, and there are some very steep stairs. That said, there are often ways around the hills. Here is a map of Escalators, and there is a list of them here.

We, like the OP, decided against a car and used public transport to travel around (day trips to Gubbio, Spello, Orvieto). A tip which may help both avoid some hills plus save you some money. Busitalia have a transport card called "Umbria Go". It covers local trains (Not intercity or freccia) , buses, the minimetro and the ferrrys on lake Trasimeno. it works out at €33 for 3 days or €45 for the week. As you don't need to worry about individual tickets, you could find somewhere near a bustop and just use the very frequent local bus service to navigate up to the hills.