Perugia.
The great "Guelf strong-hold"
rises up in the region's heart, with its 5 historical
quarters closed in by its Etruscan town walls. Entering
the city via Porta San Pietro, whose exterior was
remodelled by Agostino di Duccio in 1475, you'll arrive
at the Basilica of St. Dominic on the right-hand side;
the very important National
Archeological Museum of Umbria is
to be found in the adjacent cloisters and convent.
Continuing along, you'll reach the Piazza del Sopramuro,
where the 15th century Palace of the Old University
and the adjacent Palace of the People's Captain look
down on the square. Further on, after a short climb,
you'll find yourself in one of Italy's most important
squares, where you'll see the Priors'Palace,
the Cathedral and the 13th century Major
Fountain at the center. At the extreme
end of Corso Vannucci you'll find famous panoramic
gardens built on the foundations of the Rocca Paolina,
a strong-hold built by Pope Paul III in 1540.
Laying on the slopes of Monte
Ingino, Gubbio
is one of the most ancient towns of Umbria, extremely
well preserved during centuries and rich of monuments
testifying its glorious past. At the beginning of
the XIV century the Consuls
Palace, today symbol of the town,
was constructed together with the square Piazza Pensile
and Pretorio Palace. To remind the palaces Beni, del
Bargello with the famous fountain, of People Captain,
in typical renaissance style, Dukes
Palace by Francesco Giorgio Martini
which testity the importance of the period on which
the Montefeltro's family had the administration of
the town.
Spello
rises up between Assisi and Foligno,
situated on a spur of the Subasio Mountain above a
fertile and well-irrigated plain. Among the neighbouring
cities, this is surely the one which preserves the
major number of monuments testifying to the Roman
era; for example, the town walls, which later became
the foundations for the medieval walls, the ruins
of the theater and the amphitheater, the thermal baths
and the splendid town portals Porta
Consolare, Porta Urbica and Porta Venere dating
back to the Augustean era. In ascent, you'll arrive
at the church of St.
Mary Maggiore built Between the 11th
and 12th centuries, which, even if it can boast a
beautiful facade riconstructed with antique materials
in 1644 at the same time as other architectonic modificatione
were undertaken, guards its most precious treausure
inside.
Spoleto.
The glamour of this town comes not only from its monuments,
but above all from the relation with the nature that
surrounds it. The Monteluco
does not act only as stage decor, but it is protagonist
of the story of the town, with its forest of holm-oaks
protected since antiquity. From its Roman origin,
Spoleto preserves the remains of the amphitheater,
the arc of Druso and
the cavea of the theater, still today spectacular
stage for concerts and shows. In the medieval age,
an urban revival was undertaken, with the construction
of churches and the birth of the suburbs, distinctive
characters of the present urban scene.