Umbria Travel Guide: Is It Worth Visiting?
Our first night in Umbria, we didn’t even mean to go anywhere special. We’d driven down from Florence to a farm stay outside the little town of Paciano and went into nearby Città della Pieve just to find dinner. Instead, we walked straight into the Palio dei Terzieri. Flags were hanging from the buildings, kids were trying medieval games and Dylan, who was nine, went from one activity to the next. We hadn’t planned any of it. We didn’t even know the festival existed.
That was August 2017, our first summer living in Italy, and we’ve gone back to Umbria several times since. It sits right next to Tuscany and, honestly, parts of it look very similar. You still get the rolling countryside, stone hill towns and olive groves, but Umbria gets far less attention. Tuscany is one of the first regions people think of when they plan a trip to Italy. Umbria often isn’t.
This guide covers the towns we’ve actually spent time in, a couple of stops just over the border and how to plan a trip to Umbria if you’ve only got a few days.
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Umbria at a Glance
- When we went: First trip in August 2017, with later visits to Orvieto and Perugia while we were living in Italy
- Where we stayed: A farm stay outside Paciano near Lake Trasimeno, then a country rental near Ficulle, north of Orvieto
- Best for: Hill towns, road trips, food, wine and a quieter alternative to Tuscany
- Don’t miss: Orvieto’s underground city
- What we’d skip: Assisi at midday in August
- You’ll need: A car. Really.
Our Tip: Base yourself in the countryside, not in one town. Many of Umbria’s best stops are within an hour or so of each other, and a farm stay with a pool lets you do a hill town in the morning and be back in the water by the hottest part of the afternoon. That’s how we did our first trip, and it’s still how I’d do it.
Where Is Umbria, Italy?
Umbria is in the middle of Italy, tucked between Tuscany to the west, Lazio to the south and Marche to the east. Our friend Dario taught us this fact we now repeat to everyone: it’s the only region in Italy that doesn’t touch the sea or another country. Every other region has a coastline or a border. Umbria has neither.
That matters more than it sounds like it would. No beach towns means no summer beach crowds, and if you want to see the smaller hill towns, you’ll probably be driving. Florence is roughly two hours from Perugia, Rome is about an hour and a half from Orvieto and trains only get you to some of the places you’ll want to visit.
Is Umbria Worth Visiting Over Tuscany?
If you’ve already done Tuscany, yes, absolutely. If you haven’t, I’d still put Umbria on the list, ideally on the same trip. Cortona, which we love, is in Tuscany, while Lake Trasimeno is just below it in Umbria. You can sleep in one region and have lunch in the other.
Umbria can also feel a little easier on the budget, especially for countryside stays. Prices in the most famous parts of Tuscany have climbed a lot, while the farm stay we had outside Paciano gave us three separate apartments, a big pool and acres of land for what felt like very good value.
What you give up is name recognition. Some of Umbria’s hill towns are every bit as beautiful as the better-known towns in Tuscany, but far fewer people have heard of them. For us, that was part of the appeal.
Orvieto
Orvieto sits on top of a huge slab of volcanic rock, and the cathedral in the middle of town is enormous. Our first visit did not go well. It was over 100°F, a woman in front of the Duomo fainted and hit her head on the marble steps, and then Lisa fainted too. The woman was okay. So was Lisa, eventually. We got her to a bench first. We ate lunch and left.
But the town was so pretty we wanted a better memory, so we went back. And then back again. One of the best things we did there was the underground tour. There are more than 1,200 caves, tunnels, wells and cisterns dug into the rock under the city, built up over almost 3,000 years, and you go down into them with a guide. They even raised pigeons down there, which I found fascinating and Lisa found gross.
We cover the tour, St. Patrick’s Well and where we ate in our full guide to things to do in Orvieto.
Assisi
You see Assisi long before you get there. The land around it is flat farmland, and then this whole pink-and-white stone town rises up the side of Mount Subasio. Lisa said it looked like it was coming out of the clouds. I thought it looked like a mirage.
It’s beautiful, very religious and one of the steepest towns I’ve ever walked. Assisi is the hometown of St. Francis, the patron saint of animals, so there are churches, pilgrims and religious sites everywhere. We climbed up to Rocca Maggiore for the view in the middle of a summer day with our dog Cash, and I would not do that again. There’s almost no shade up there.
The Basilica of St. Francis is the obvious must-see, but for me the town itself was just as memorable as the church.
Perugia
Perugia is Umbria’s capital and it feels more like a real city than the smaller hill towns, with students, traffic and an old town sitting high above the newer parts below. The first time we went, we were driving back to Florence from Rome with Lisa’s nephew BJ and walked straight into Eurochocolate. The ramp up to the old town smelled like chocolate. We didn’t have long, but it was a very good hour.
On a later trip we did the Baci Perugina factory tour, which I’d recommend to anyone, and had dinner in one of those restaurants you reach by going down a strange little staircase into what feels like a cave. Perugia also has Rocca Paolina, where you walk through vaulted passages built over part of the old medieval city.
More in our post on things to do in Perugia.
Lake Trasimeno
This is the part of Umbria we know best because it’s where we stayed on our first trip. Lake Trasimeno is the fourth largest lake in Italy, and towns like Paciano and Città della Pieve are small, quiet and close to the Tuscan border. If you’re staying in this part of Umbria, the lake works well as a base for day trips into both Umbria and southern Tuscany.
It’s also where Lisa decided she and Dylan should kayak out to an island in the middle of the lake. They made it about 15 meters. I watched from a café with a coffee and a pastry. We also ended up in Città della Pieve for the Palio dei Terzieri, drove some ridiculous farm roads and came home with a watermelon from a harvested field. We’ve got all of that in our Lake Trasimeno guide.
Garden of Monsters at Bomarzo
Technically this one is in Lazio, not Umbria, but it fits naturally into a road trip through this part of central Italy. The Sacro Bosco in Bomarzo, usually called the Garden of Monsters, is a 16th-century park filled with giant stone creatures and strange sculptures half-hidden in the trees.
It’s not a polished sculpture garden. Lisa put it well: it’s not the Rodin Museum in Paris. It’s a big, slightly wild park in the middle of nowhere, and every so often you turn a corner and there’s a monster. You can walk right into some of them. I have a photo of Dylan standing inside a huge open mouth that’s still one of my favorites from that summer.
You don’t need hours here. It’s an easy stop if you’re driving between Orvieto and Rome, especially with kids.
Where We Stayed in Umbria
On our first trip in August 2017, we stayed at a farm stay outside Paciano near Lake Trasimeno. It was exactly the kind of place that works well in Umbria: countryside, a pool and easy access to smaller hill towns. We used it as a base for Città della Pieve, Assisi and Orvieto. It was also the trip where Google Maps sent us down tiny farm roads and we ended up bringing home a watermelon left behind in a harvested field.
In August 2019, we stopped in Umbria for a couple of days while driving from the Amalfi Coast toward Elba and stayed near Ficulle. From there, we went back to Orvieto and drove to Perugia for the Perugina chocolate factory.
If I were planning another trip, I’d still choose the countryside over staying in one of the bigger towns. It makes the driving easier, and it’s part of what we liked most about Umbria. If you’d rather be in a town, Orvieto and Assisi both work well for a night or two. For options in every area and budget, see our guide to where to stay in Umbria.
Driving in Umbria
You’ll want a car for most trips through Umbria. Some of the best parts of the region are between the towns, and the countryside is a big part of why you come. We learned pretty quickly not to trust Google Maps blindly. Near Paciano, it sent us down what was basically a farm road between fields. It also gave us the watermelon story, so I can’t complain too much.
The other thing to watch for is police checkpoints. Outside Ficulle, we got waved over by an officer holding the round red-and-white paddle we always called the lollipop. They mostly want to check that your paperwork is in order, so keep your license, International Driving Permit and rental documents somewhere easy to reach.
Parking is easier if you leave the car outside the historic centers. Orvieto, Assisi and Perugia all have limited-traffic zones, and the fines for driving into one can show up months later. Use the larger parking areas, escalators and funiculars instead.
Our Tip: If you’re visiting in July or August, do your sightseeing early. Our first summer in Umbria was brutally hot, so we’d head out in the morning, spend the hottest part of the afternoon back at the pool and go out again for dinner.
How Many Days Do You Need in Umbria?
For a first trip, four or five days is a good amount of time if you base yourself in one place and drive out from there.
That gives you enough time for Orvieto, Assisi and Perugia, plus a slower day around Lake Trasimeno or one of the smaller hill towns. I’d also leave one day with nothing major planned. Umbria is the kind of place where some of the best stops are the ones you didn’t know about before you got there.
If you only have one day, I’d pick Orvieto. It’s easy to reach by train from Rome or Florence and you can see the Duomo, the underground city and St. Patrick’s Well without needing a car.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. If you like hill towns, countryside, food and wine, Umbria gives you a lot of what people love about Tuscany with fewer crowds.
Not better, just different. Tuscany has Florence, Siena and more famous towns. Umbria feels quieter and less polished, which is part of why we like it.
Hill towns like Orvieto and Assisi, St. Francis, Perugina chocolate, olive oil, wine and the countryside between the towns.
For most trips, yes. Orvieto and Perugia are easy enough by train, but smaller towns and countryside stays are much easier with a car.
Orvieto is about an hour and a half from Rome, while Perugia is roughly two hours from Florence by car.
Spring and fall are the easiest times for sightseeing. Summer can be very hot, especially in July and August.
Listen to Our Umbria Episode
Want to hear more about our trips through Umbria? In this episode of the getAwayZ podcast, we talk about our first stay near Paciano, finding the Palio dei Terzieri by accident, returning to Orvieto, visiting Perugia for chocolate and the little road-trip memories that made us keep coming back.
We also talk about what we’d do differently, where we’d stay and whether Umbria is worth adding to an Italy trip.
Short on time? Start with our guide to things to do in Orvieto, the easiest Umbrian town to see in a day.
Planning More Umbria and Italy Travel
If Umbria is part of a longer Italy trip, these are the guides I’d use next.
- Things to Do in Orvieto
- Things to Do in Perugia
- Lake Trasimeno and Its Hill Towns
- Where to Stay in Umbria
- Tuscany Travel Guide
- Cortona Travel Guide
- Italy Travel Guide
