Explore Umbria
The provincial capital PERUGIA is the most obvious place to kick off a tour of Umbria. A bustling university town, known for its chocolate and its jazz festival, there’s at least a day’s worth of good sightseeing here, and it’s not a bad place to base yourself if you want to explore the surrounding area: it has big-city amenities and trains run to all the major highlights, complemented by fast new roads and an extensive bus network. The town hinges around a single street, the Corso Vannucci, named after the city’s most celebrated artist, Pietro Vannucci (c1450–1523), better known as Perugino. Lined with bustling pavement cafés, this is one of Italy’s greatest people-watching streets, packed from dawn through to the early hours with a parade of tourists, students and trendsetters.
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Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria
Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria
Just opposite the cathedral on Piazza IV Novembre, and decidedly outdoing it in terms of architectural panache, rises the exquisite Gothic Palazzo dei Priori, often – and rightly – described as one of the greatest public palaces in Italy. Sheer bulk aside, it’s certainly impressive – with rows of trefoil windows from which convicted criminals were once thrown to their deaths, majestic Gothic doorway, and business-like Guelph crenellations – though the overall effect is rather forbidding; its real beauty derives from the harmony set up by the medieval buildings around it.
The Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria is on the upper floor of the palace complex (lift or stairs), with the entrance through its opulently carved doorway. One of central Italy’s best and most charming galleries, this takes you on a romp through the history of Umbrian painting, with masterpieces by Perugino, Pinturicchio and many others, plus one or two stunning Tuscan masterpieces (Duccio, Fra’ Angelico, Piero della Francesca) thrown in for good measure. The entrance is worth every cent if you’re the slightest bit interested in early and mid-Renaissance art.
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Bloodlust in medieval Perugia
Bloodlust in medieval Perugia
Medieval Perugia was evidently a hell of a place to be. “The most warlike of the people of Italy”, wrote the historian Sismondi, “who always preferred Mars to the Muse.” Male citizens played a game (and this was for pleasure) in which two teams, thickly padded in clothes stuffed with deer hair and wearing beaked helmets, stoned each other mercilessly until the majority of the other side were dead or wounded. Children were encouraged to join in for the first two hours to promote “application and aggression”.
In 1265 Perugia was also the birthplace of the Flagellants, who had half of Europe whipping itself into a frenzy before the movement was declared heretical. In addition to some hearty scourging they took to the streets on moonlit nights, groaning and wailing, dancing in white sheets, singing dirges and clattering human bones together, all as expiation for sin and the wrongs of the world. Then there were the infamous Baglioni, the medieval family who misruled the city for several generations, their spellbinding history – full of vendetta, incest and mass slaughter – the stuff of great medieval soap opera.
