Southern Umbria in March

Umbria is great. Orvieto is in southern Umbria.
Other great cities to see in Umbria are Assisi, Spoleto, Spello, Perugia and Gubbio.

Orvieto

• walking routes --- https://www.orvietoviva.com/percorsi-dei-quartieri/

• Thursday market Piazza del Popolo

• Museo MODO (arch. + opera)

• Museo Claudio Faina (Etruscan + Greek pottery + view of Duomo)

• Torre del Moro (medieval + view)(250 steps or elevator part way)

• walk on Via Malabranca and Via Filippeschi and wall-top Via Volsinia

• Chiesa San Lorenzo

• San Giovenale frescoes + viewpoint to the west

• ex chiesa Sant'Agostino (facade + sculpture collection inside....may be closed)

• Orvieto Underground (45 minute tour) or just Pozzo della Cava (well + caves)

Perugia

https://www.viaggiareinumbria.com/10-cose-da-vedere-a-perugia/

• Saturday market Pian di Massiano

• Thursday Ponte San Giovanni, huge market includes many food vendors from all over Umbria

• 5 min walk from mini-metro station to train & bus station on direct sidewalk. Runs until 21:00. Main bus station is down escalators at end of Corso Vannucci across the little park.

*preferred parking lot (Pellini) to the center of town = one of the prettiest walks

• Abbazia di San Pietro = Deruta tiles & floor tiles, votives (and otherwise also worthwhile)

• Rocca Paolina, in winter, last weekend of the month? ceramics

• Museo Archeologico Nazionale dell’ Umbria (M.A.N.U.) in San Domenico. views from upper windows & beautiful courtyard. Prehistoric to 3rd c., reconstructed tomb on lower level.

• Galleria Nazionale dell’ Umbria

• Nobile Collegio del Cambio 1452–1457. Sala delle Udienze one of the finest examples of Renaissance art & woodworking. Frescoes. Also Chapel of San Giovanni.

• Nobile Collegio della Mercanzia Part of original Palazzo dei Priori. late 14th c, inlaid wood with Nordic & Eastern influences, intricate, & original. Wood used only in religious buildings like choir stalls, rarely secular. wood not ‘common’ frescoes to show taste, wealth, & power.

• Museo Laboratorio Moretti Caselli --- workspace & museum, making & restoration stained glass windows & works of art. Since 1860, five generations of artists, in 15th-century residence that belonged to the Baglioni family. Tours in English by appointment.

• Museo-Laboratorio di Tessitura a Mano Giuditta Brozzetti. 15-20 minute hilly walk from main piazza. Romanesque San Francesco delle Donne, traditional textiles of Perugia & Umbria (in Giotto and Da Vinci) Working studio, looms in action, & demos of how fabrics are made.

• Museo del Capitolo di San Lorenzo/Arch. Area cloister = furniture, paintings, illuminated manuscripts. 25 rooms. Archeological Area = extra 10 euros. Walk on Etruscan roads, thru arches & into rooms from 6th–5th c BC. Roman marble 2nd c BC & a medieval kiln discovered under the cathedral. Guides in the afternoons, in English with a minimum of 5 people.

• Etruscan Well or Pozzo Etrusco --- town was built on top of 2000+ year old 121' well. marker in Piazza Sorbello. Medieval underground passageway, cross through well on bridge.

** Ipogeo dei Volumni e Necropoli del Palazzone Etruscan museum outside of the city center & necropolis, containing around 200 tombs, 300 years BC, discovered in 1840.

• Museo dell'Opera del Duomo Sant'Onofrio Altarpiece by Luca Signorelli, weird details

• Tempio di San Michele Arcangelo probably dating from the 5 century constructed on the remains of a Roman temple built on a site sacred to Etruscans. VERY COOL

*** Cimitero Monumentale

Assisi

• Saturday market (actually probably avoid a Saturday!)

• San Rufino excellent facade with animals, weird people, etc. (other end of town)

Spello

https://michelledamiani.com/spello/2017/4/20/how-to-visit-spello

• Wednesday market Piazza Matteotti Baschi, Piazza Italia

• remarkable number of intact Roman gates, notably Porta Venere & Porta Consolare.

• Villa dei Mosaici --- nice floor mosaics, get app

• Church of S. Maria Maggiore 13-17th c Cappella Baglioni, Pinturicchio frescoes 1501

• Cappella Tega eighteen 14c frescoes by Umbrian school, & Crucifixion attributed to Alunno. Adjacent Palazzo dei Canonici = Pinacoteca rich collection 13-16th c.

• Church of S. Andrea (13th c) 15th c frescoes by Foligno school, ruined 13th c fresco, oil-painting on wood of Crucifix from the time of Giotto, oil-painting on wood by Pinturicchio.

• Church of S. Claudio Romanesque 12th c with 14 & 15th c frescoes Orvieto/Umbrian school.

Deruta

• Tuesday market

• Deruta Ceramics Museum

• Grazia Maioliche wide range traditional to modern + a museum

• opposite Grazia, Sberna: one wing w quality maiolica & another with mass produced.

• Maioliche Binaglia small but authentic studio specializes in traditional Deruta patterns

• Miriam Di Favaroni Marcella & Deruta Placens Maioliche Artistiche Di Mordenti Annalisa

Torgiano

*wine & olive oil museums

Citta della Pieve

*red brick town weeping angels crucifix by student of Martini & Lorenzetti

Gubbio

• Tuesday market * Town center, third Sunday antiques * fourth Sunday organic food

• second largest theatre in the Roman empire (1st = Marcellus in Rome)

• most picturesque streets = Via Baldassini, Via Galeotti, Via Piccardi, XX Settembre, Via dei Consoli (note the Porte della Morte along it), & those along the river leading to Piazza 40 Martiri

• State Road 219 from Umbertide to Gualdo Tadino is a scenic route

• Museo della Ceramicha

• Chiesa di San Francesco, frescoes + cloister

• Fontana di Pazzi

• Museo Civico e Pinacoteca/Palazzo dei Consoli, views from loggia + medieval rooms

*** Sant'Agostino, frescoes & paintings, hard to find it open

Citta di Castello

• Thursday market (& Saturday?) Town center, 3rd Sunday

• Pinocoteca Saint Sebastian 1498 tempera by Signorelli, weird, see it

• town hall 1300's

• cathedral

Montone

* walled medieval village, towering mountains, misty views, overlooks the river
* Complesso Museale di San Francesco a Montone --- nice art

Gualdo Tadino

* Rocca Flea art gallery --- looks cool but could be skipped
* Sant'Angelo di Flea -- church with three-headed people frescoes

Spoleto

• Friday market Piazza del Mercato, center of town, 2nd Sunday -- some other market

• Duomo (Santa Maria Assunta) = facade and apse + Museo Diocesano (Santa Eufemia?)

• Basilica di San Pietro, very very very cool facade, outside of town (car?) https://www.viaggiareinumbria.com/altorilievi-facciata-basilica-san-pietro-spoleto/

• Casa Romana di Vespaia Polla next to the Palazzo Comunale --- very cool, underground

• Ponte delle Torri 13th c aqueduct, possibly on Roman foundations. Nice walks on other side.

• San Salvatore (4–5 c) one of the most important Early Christian architecture. Often closed.

• San Gregorio Maggiore --- cool early church

Bevagna

• water-driven papermill medieval paper-making

• Mosaico delle Terme Romane (sea creatures) seems to be closed? via di Porta Guelfa

Trevi

• Thursday market Piazza Garibaldi

• St. Francesco, Museo della Civiltà dell’Ulivo, Raccolta d'Arte, former convent, 13th c

• Palazzo Comunale art by Pinturicchio, & a museum of archeological artefacts.

• Eat Trevi “black” celery

Montefalco

• Monday market in largo Santa Chiara and largo Buozzi

• Saturday Flower Market, brunch outdoors at Alchemista in the square in front.

• Museo Civico -- Gozzoli & others

• Sant'Agostino --- attrib. Lorenzetti

• Sant'Illuminata just outside the walls --- cute frescoes

• San Fortunato, a mile outside the walls, more very nice Gozzoli (good online photos)

Todi

• Saturday market

• Duomo, inside choir stalls and columns

• Chiesa di San Fortunato, door and frescoes

Vallo di Nera

*Church of Santa Maria Assunta:

Norcia

• Castelluccio at sunrise = see thermal 'inversions', entire Piano valley fills with a milky fog.

• Cascia Church of Sant'Antonio Abate

*Abbazia San Pietro in Valle. church + cloister open to visitors, paintings "superb", incredible views... from Scheggino a sharp right turn off SS209 B4 Colleponte

** Monteleone di Spoleto, Church of San Francesco frescoes:

Narni

• Palazzo Communale --- Ghirlandaio

• Duomo -- floor, portal

• Museo Eroli.... Civic Museum incredible art

• Piazza Garibaldi

• Narni Sotterranea – underground town discovered in 1977. 13thc cool frescoes, Roman cistern

***Church of Santa Maria Impensole. medieval frescoes & stone decorations

Amelia

• Monday market in Piazza XX Settembre

• eat fichi girotti (fig cake)

• Museo archeologico + a picture gallery

• small wooden theater, Piazza Marconi, cool tower, Vicolo Baciafemmine

Carsulae --- several areas closed, tiny museum, https://www.bella-umbria.com/carsulae/#.XlE7LxNKi8o

Terni

• San Francesco frescoes (ca. 1449) of Last Judgement in Cappella Paradisi

• Sant'Alo

• Duomo Santa Maria Assunta facade

• San Salvatore -- circular

• art museum = modern + Benozzo Gozzoli

• San Pietro frescoes

• return rental car and take train to Rome