Places to visit in Umbria from Perugia

Consider spending a couple hours in Civita di Bagnoregio when visiting Orvieto. You have to walk up a pedestrian bridge to get there, but the town itself is something to appreciate.

Spello is a delightful little town to walk around and well worth a visit and easy to get to from Perugia. Gubbio is another possibility and has, arguably, more specific "sights".

We visited Umbria a number of years ago and enjoyed Assisi, Spoleto, Spello and Orvieto. We also included a stop at the beautiful Lago Trasimeno. It is 40 min. from Perugia. I would also suggest Civita de Bagnoregio for a few hours. Another consideration is the "off the tourist track town" of Gubbio. It dates back to the Etruscan period that became famous for the discovery of the Eugubine Tables in 1444. The bronze tablets make up the largest surviving text in ancient Umbrian. Gubbio also boasts the second-largest surviving Roman theatre in the world. The piazza is home to The Palazzo dei Consli. The day we visited their was a Wedding party in the Piazza. The Piazza has a stunning view over the medieval town. Gubbio was a pleasant surprise and a memorable stop for a few hours. Prior to Umbria we visited Tuscany. We were on a culinary tour and can attest to the wonderful cuisine in both regions!

We also enjoyed visiting Assisi, Spoleto and Gubbio from Perugia. We didn’t have a car and the TI was helpful in suggesting those towns and whether bus or train would be the best transport. Safe travels.

We plan to take the train and the rides to those cities are short and not expensive. We many opt to stay two nights in Orvieto before we move to Perugia.

We were planning to visit Umbria for 5 weeks last year and will go either this November or next April if we can. Perugia for 12 nights, and of course visiting Assisi, Spoleto, and Orvieto.

I visited Assisi when I was 15 and my husband and I did already spend a couple nights in Orvieto 20 years ago, but all the rest of Umbria will be new to us. What we are usually looking for is medieval and early Renaissance art and architecture, indigenous or otherwise interesting wines, unfancy places to buy or eat locally produced food, museums, and anything ancient Roman or Etruscan. Unfortunately, I no longer remember specifically why we chose each of these towns, but it may give you some ideas.

Other towns we will visit or stay in are:
Todi
Gubbio
Deruta (for ceramics)
Bevagna
Montefalco
Torgiano
Trevi
Norcia
Narni
Amelia

Less well-known towns we might be able to squeeze in one or two of:
Scheggino
Castelluccio
Foligno
Corciano
Panicale
Paciano

Not from Perugia, but we thought that Orvieto was the perfect daytrip from Rome, 70-minute train ride from Termini station, which we did in March 2017. From the station, take the funicular up to the plateau of the hilltown, which I believe is vehicle-free (or very limited). The cathedral is spectacular, maybe my favorite in all of Italy, inside & out. Phenomenal food, we had homemade tagliatelle with cinghiale (wild boar) at a tiny restaurant/cafe where that was about the only item on the menu (along with house wine). Picturesque shops & walkways, not really touristed-up like I see in some other towns. This is pretty much authentic.

Planning on visiting again from Rome in April 2022, want to show it off to friends!

NancyB, nice list. Please keep in mind though that the hamlet of Casteluccio was wrecked in the earthquakes of a few years ago. You can certainly drive there--the real draw is the Piano Grande that Castelluccio presides over. It's pretty spectacular, especially in late spring, when wildflowers bloom. But the town itself is still cordoned off. Some restaurants and food sellers have set up temporary spots on its outskirts, but the town itself was a sad vicitim of the quakes. There's a nice agriturismo near Norcia that's perfect for pranzo (lunch), the Osteria degli Amici. My family likes to have lunch there, then drive to the Piano to hike around and enjoy the cool mountain air.

Thanks, apaonita ---- yes, Castelluccio must have been on our list for a place to eat and for wildflowers (if we visit Umbria in spring)! I will have to go find my huge bundle of notes on Umbria and rediscover why each location was chosen!

We stayed at LE TRE VASELLE RESORT & SPA in Torgiano a few years ago. Really a special place. Great food, pool, spa. Good parking and easy access to the big roads. The town is not anything special; but, the resort is. A little change of pace when compared to a typical AirBnB.

Ah, googling the town, I see that Torgiano is for the wine museum and the olive oil museum.

Spello, Bevagna, Montefalco and Assisi.

In case everybody’s not familiar with the the denniscallan walking-through-towns videos on YouTube, here are the Umbrian ones.

Perugia https://youtu.be/Nh_LQs_Rxow

Spoleto https://youtu.be/EzabhB5vQRY

Gubbio https://youtu.be/7V0aqyvHn_s (the first of several about Gubbio)

Todi https://youtu.be/3oeYUk_3ipY

He’s not the best narrator in the world, but it was his videos of Gubbio that made us want to go to Umbria next.

I too used Perugia as a base to visit other umbrian towns but made the mistake of not staying in the immediate historical district. Instead I rented an AirBnB apartment, which although nice was a real disadvantage in seeing the sights of Perugia itself. I was near the tram which shuttled me up the hill to Perugia proper but what I failed to realize is that the shuttle stopped running at 9:00 PM. This could have changed by now but if I had to do it over again I would have never stayed in the lower portion of Perugia.

Also, we generally found the driving in and out of Perugia very confusing and we are New York drivers. In fact, on our first trip out of our apartment to the historic district we almost drove down a flight of steps!! Talk about harrowing, I felt like we were in a scene from the Bourne Identity movie! From then on we used the tram but the 9:00 "turning into a pumpkin" timeline meant we always had to take a cab back down or exit before 9:00.

A nice place to visit (you need a car) is Villa La Foce it has lovely gardens, architecture, plants, flowers in a beautiful setting. If you like history, there is also the story of Iris the original owner who recounts what it was like to live there during the bombing of WWII. She saved many lives by hiding them at the Villa.

We plan to take the train and the rides to those cities are short and not expensive

We've been to many of the towns listed in the thread over the years. You really can't go wrong, just pick some from a map or guide book and go. We have visited both by car and train. With a car you need to be careful of the ZTL but it is far more convenient. With the train their schedule is your schedule, which may not match the time you want to spend. With a car we plan on two hilltowns a day but have a nearby "backup" or two on the list. If we decide we don't like the one we started with then we can just move on; much harder to do when the next train out is in 3 hours. We wouldn't rule out the train again but our preference in rural areas has definitely become a car, reserving the train for moving between larger cities.

One town in Umbria that I loved and nobody has mentioned is Cortona. Not that big but great views of the Valley. Definitely a car to get there. We stayed at the base outside the town and would drive up each day and park outside the walls. If need be PM me and I can give you the name of the B&B were we stayed.

Geovagriffith,
Je propose Bevagna and Trevi, with the latter also including the waters @Clitunno di Trevi. October in Bevagna would include their excellent Labor Day long weekend, an appealing fest separate from its earlier summer medieval tourist event. International food booths, the annual Communion for tweeners and sometimes a special play in the town's tiny, perfect and authentic historical theatre, comprise that long weekend.

Montefalco on a Saturday would give you a two-fer: brunch say outdoors at Alchemista, with the weekly Flower Market spread across the square directly in front. Castelluccio is an absolute must, maybe consider trying for the sunrise there coz you might just get lucky and witness one of the village's awesome thermal 'inversions', one of travel's great moments. The *entire Piano valley fills with a milky fog.
Spello has the wonderful Cafe Propenzio. After I gave it a shout-out over on Thorn Tree, some snarky Brit snobs put it down as 'pandering to Americans'. Damn the torpedoes, those smug critics are wrong. The wine there is world-class.
Spoleto is also not to be missed.

Bonus: one of the area's best-kept secrets is The Abbazia San Pietro in Valle. The abbey-church itself is open to visitors, with its ancient paintings, but the whole property is a family-run wonder, with incredible views. The lodgings are a splurge but not too expensive. Breakfasts are worth waking early for, in a courtyard with plenty of authentic historic charm. We met a Colorado couple there who'd come for their 7th straight October stay in order yet again, to hike the trails.

Norcia was wrecked in the quakes too---is it back on its feet for visitors and locals yet?

I am done. the end.

Go to Castiglione del Lago province of Perugia it is a beautiful village (borgo) very close to the Trasimeno lake. Another medieval town close the Trasimeno is Citta della Pieve, pay attention to the weather October can be beautiful as well as very rainy.

This is great, we will be (hopefully) staying just off that Lake folks are mentioning for a week in November at Agriturismo Villa San Crispolto. We were supposed to have been married there in October 2020 but covid had other ideas about that. We have been looking for day trip ideas, this thread is very helpful!

We stayed in Perugia. We went to Spello and Montefalco on our way to Orvieto. I think Spello was my favorite.