General Travel Tips

These general tips apply to wherever you may travel to in Italy including Umbria. Etiquette – Not all places allow picture taking. Museums, especially, often retain sole rights to photograph their works. Flash photography is especially frowned upon as being disruptive. Many churches and museums require appropriate dress and in fact have guards on the…
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Eurochocolate

If you are a chocoholic, then Umbria is the place to be each year in October when the region hosts Eurochocolate, an annual chocolate festival that takes place in Perugia, the region’s capital. This chocolate festival is the most popular chocolate festival in Europe and has been held since 1993. It is also one of the…
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Porchettiamo

Umbrian Market Tour

One of our favorite things to do each week here in Umbria is to visit the local outdoor markets. You can easily visit a market each day if you choose to, and in fact some days there are as many as five markets of various sizes running across the region on a given day. In…
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Festa della Cipolla in Cannara

The one thing we have been amazed about the past few months while we have been in Umbria is just how many food festivals, or sagre there are. Every Friday listed in the Umbrian weekend paper are a list of every sagra being held in the region, and there can be dozens of different festivals…
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Deruta Ceramics

I love Italian ceramics, and in fact have collected pieces from Sicily to Liguria, but my favorite place to shop for Italian ceramics or Maiolica (also known as “majolica”) is in Deruta, a small Umbrian town less than 15 minutes from our farmhouses. I can honestly say that we probably fell in love with Umbria,…
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The Splendor of Piano Grande And The Sibillini Mountains

The mountainous landscape that falls east of Norcia is one of Italy’s hidden treasures, and it becomes an outdoor lover’s paradise during the spring and summer. Trails cover the countryside which are suitable for both hikers and mountain bikers, while the windy upland plains create a perfect environment for hang-gliding. Campgrounds can be found across…
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Spello L’infiorita – Spello Flower Festival

After 6 years of waiting, I finally managed to visit Spello during the L’infiorata and it was honestly well worth the wait. This event takes place every year, on the Sunday after Corpus Domini which falls on a Thursday. Corpus Domini or Corpus Christi is a festival in honor of the Eucharist, the body of…
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Nero Norcia

Although we have managed to explore much of Umbria throughout the years, Norcia is one Umbrian town that we never had the chance to visit on any of our many trips to the region. When we heard the famous Nero Norcia, or Black Truffle Festival was being held while we were still in Umbria, we…
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Foligno

Foligno is one of Umbria’s larger cities that lies in the plain of the river Topino making it one of the few Umbrian towns to be built on flat land. In the past, Foligno was at the crossroads of two important commercial roads, the Via Flaminia and the road from Perugia to Assisi. Unfortunately Foligno was hit by an earthquake in 1997 which did quite a bit of damage to the city, though much of it has now been restored. Foligno is one of Umbria’s most important commercial and manufacturing centers so is often overlooked as a tourist destination. Read More