Umbria

Umbria is the one Italian region in the peninsula's heart with no coast at all, so swimming means lakes and pools. Lake Trasimeno, on the Tuscan border, has small lido beaches at Castiglione del Lago, Passignano and Tuoro, and the water warms to around 25°C by midsummer. It is shallow, calm and good for paddling, but often cloudy, with reeds and a soft muddy bottom in places rather than clear water and sand.

The smaller Lake Piediluco near Terni and cold river pools in the Valnerina offer a dip on hot days. For most visitors the real swimming is the pool at a country farmhouse stay, and anyone who wants the sea faces a drive of two hours or more.

Umbrian cooking is country food from the hills, and it is very good at what it does. Black truffle is shaved over handmade strangozzi and umbricelli pasta, Norcia gave its name to Italian pork butchery, and porchetta sandwiches are sold from vans at markets across the region. Castelluccio lentils, Trevi olive oil, wild boar and torta al testo flatbread fill out a menu built on a few strong local products.

Wine is a real reason to come: the tannic Sagrantino around Montefalco and the white wines of Orvieto, tasted at estates in the hills. Perugia has a long chocolate tradition and the best spread of restaurants, while village trattorie and autumn truffle fairs show the cuisine at its most local. What is missing is range: seafood and international cooking are thin.

Umbria's heritage is spread across a chain of medieval hill towns, and several hold art of the first rank. In Assisi, the Basilica of St Francis is lined with frescoes by Giotto, Cimabue and Simone Martini, and the whole town of pink stone is a UNESCO site. Orvieto's cathedral stands on a cliff of volcanic rock above Etruscan tunnels. Its façade glitters with gilded mosaics above Maitani's carved reliefs, its flanks and interior are banded in dark basalt and pale travertine, and inside is Signorelli's Last Judgement.

Perugia has the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, rich in Perugino and Piero della Francesca, and a grand Gothic main square. Gubbio's Palazzo dei Consoli, Spoleto's Duomo and Roman bridge, Todi's square, Pinturicchio's chapel in Spello and Benozzo Gozzoli's cycle in Montefalco reward slower days. There are few big museums. The pleasure lies in towns that are each a set piece.

Evenings in Umbria revolve around a long dinner and a stroll. Perugia is the exception: with two universities and many foreign language students, its main street and cathedral steps fill on warm evenings, and the lanes around the old centre have wine bars and a few late bars aimed at students. Elsewhere, from Assisi to the farmhouse stays in the countryside, the night is quiet soon after the last glass of wine. Visitors who want clubs will not find them here.

Umbria is green, hilly and wooded, a landscape of olive groves, oak forest and river valleys rather than drama, until the east, where the Monti Sibillini rise to more than 2,000m. Below them the high plain of Castelluccio flowers in June and early July in bands of red, yellow and blue, and paragliders launch from its rim. The Valnerina, the deep valley of the Nera, has rafting, canyoning and walking between stone villages.

The Marmore Falls near Terni, a Roman-made cascade, drop about 165m. Monte Subasio above Assisi and Monte Cucco, with its caves and hang-gliding slopes, offer good hiking, and cyclists use the old Spoleto to Norcia railway path. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, as summer can be hot in the valleys.

Because Umbria is small and packed with towns, day trips are its rhythm. From a base near Perugia or Spoleto, a different hill town makes each day: Gubbio's stern medieval streets, Todi above the Tiber, Spello and Bevagna in the flat valley, Trevi on its olive slope, Norcia for its butchers and churches, and the Montefalco hills for Sagrantino tastings.

The Tuscan border is close. Cortona is under an hour from Perugia, Montepulciano and Pienza lie just beyond Lake Trasimeno, and Arezzo and Siena are reachable within about an hour and a half. From Orvieto, Rome is a little over an hour by train, and the Etruscan towns of northern Lazio are near. Few regions offer so many worthwhile outings within short reach.

Umbria suits a quiet family vacation built around a countryside farmhouse with a pool, animals and space to run, and Italian village life welcomes children at every table. Lake Trasimeno's shallow, warm water is easy for small swimmers, the Marmore Falls make a good outing, and there is a long-established amusement park outside Perugia.

Beyond that, little is made for children. The highlights are frescoed churches and steep medieval towns, where pushchairs struggle on stairs and cobbles and parking is outside the walls. Families who enjoy pools, walks and gelato will be content; those who need a programme of attractions will run out quickly.

A car is the practical way to see Umbria, and it is an easy place to drive: distances are short, roads are good and traffic is light outside Perugia. The catch is the hill towns, whose centres are closed to visitors' cars, so you park below the walls and ride up by escalator, lift or funicular, as in Perugia, Orvieto and Spoleto. Perugia also has a small driverless people mover.

Without a car, a regional rail line links Perugia, Assisi, Spello, Foligno and Spoleto, and Orvieto sits on the main Rome to Florence line. Buses reach smaller places like Gubbio, Todi and Montefalco, but not often, and the countryside is out of reach. Inside the towns, everything is walkable, though often steep.

Shopping in Umbria means crafts and food rather than fashion. Deruta has made painted majolica for centuries and its roadside workshops sell everything from plates to tiles, while Gubbio and Orvieto have their own ceramic traditions. Montefalco and Bevagna weave hand-loomed linen and cotton, and the area around Perugia is known for cashmere, with factory outlets.

Norcia's shops are hung with hams and salami and stocked with truffles, and estates sell Sagrantino and olive oil direct. Perugia's Corso Vannucci has ordinary Italian high-street shops, but there are no luxury streets or large department stores, and Assisi's centre leans heavily to souvenirs.

Umbria is one of the gentler-priced parts of central Italy. Country farmhouse stays and small town hotels cost noticeably less than in the better-known hills across the Tuscan border, set lunch menus in village trattorie are good value, and local wine is cheap by the glass or bottle. Most sights are churches that cost little or nothing.

The costs that add up are a hire car, which most visitors need, and rooms in Assisi and Orvieto in summer and around religious festivals, when demand is high. Truffle dishes are the one place where a meal bill climbs fast.

Umbria's stage life is concentrated in early summer. In July, Umbria Jazz takes over Perugia, with big names in the main arena and free bands playing in the streets and squares of the old centre, and a winter edition is held in Orvieto around the New Year. In Spoleto, the Festival dei Due Mondi fills its Roman theatre, opera house and piazzas with opera, theatre, dance and concerts from late June into July.

The rest of the year is quieter. Perugia's Teatro Morlacchi and Spoleto's opera house have seasons, and small towns keep jewel-box theatres of the 1800s, but performances are occasional. Visitors who care about music should plan around the summer festivals.

Umbria's restorative appeal lies in pace rather than bathing. Days in the countryside move slowly, between a long lunch, an olive grove view and an evening walk around a town wall, and many country houses add a pool, massage or yoga. Assisi and the hermitages on Monte Subasio draw people looking for silence and retreat, and the town is calm once day visitors leave.

Thermal bathing is modest. Small spa resorts with long histories exist at Fontecchio near Città di Castello and at San Gemini and Nocera Umbra, known for their mineral waters, but there is no great thermal tradition, and those who want warm pools in nature drive to the springs over the Tuscan border.