If you are interested in the center of Italy, you will find Umbria that is located between Tuscany and Le Marche to be especially appealing. The capital of Umbria is Perugia that was a city that owes its origins to the Etruscans. This is a region of Italy that does not have a lot of available space and in the confined spaces are found some of the best in Italian life, culture as well as history. As communications with the outside world improves, this region is becoming more popular to other visitors who are looking for art as well as culture, which are embodied well in the heritage of Umbria. A holiday here would provide peace as well as a chance to enjoy outdoor sports, all set in very appealing settings.

Here are hills where there are many oak evergreens, which is why this part of Italy has been called the ‘the green heart of Italy’. You will also find some very appealing wooded hills that lie between the Tiber Valley as well as the Tuscan towns of Arezzo and Cortona. There is also the Lake Trasimeno, which is the biggest expanse of water in Umbria and the place where Hannibal fought as well as vanquished the Romans way back in 217 B.C.

Towards the south of this lake there is a noticeable change in landscape with the hills and mountains giving way to undulating plains dotted with houses made of terracotta bricks. In the capital of Umbria, you will find the National Gallery of Umbria complete with a wonderfully rich collection of paintings that are the works of Renaissance artists including Duccio, Giotto, Fra Angelico as well as Gentile da Frabranio as well as Pinturicchio and Pierro della Francesca.

You can also visit the birthplace of ‘Il Perugino’ that lies in Citta della Pieve and another place worth visiting in Umbria would be Assisi where lies the Basilica of Saint Francis whose claim to fame is the wonderful set of frescoes by Giotto. If you are interested in sports, then you can visit Monte Cucco as well as Monte Vettore where are found excellent hang-gliding opportunities, and you will find at Gubbio the annual international Arab horse endurance riding event taking place.

There is also a good deal of excellent food as well as wine here in the Umbrian region with the truffles of Val Nerina and the fresh as well as smoked trout good examples of its culinary delights. There are also plenty of olives with the Umbrian olive oil enjoying good reputation given its low acidity as well as wonderful flavor. Also worth trying out is the Montefalco red wine and Grechetto white wine.

Umbrians are genial as well as hospitable and the population also holds a good many tourists with many of them enjoying the country life and settling in the old farmhouses.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Italy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.