The best hill towns with a food festival in the province of Perugia
The province of Perugia is built upward, in pale limestone and pink Subasio stone, on ridges that look across the Valle Umbra towards the mountains. The food follows the altitude and the season: black truffle grated over strangozzi, wild boar cooked slowly with juniper, torta al testo split and filled with sausage and greens, red wine from the Sagrantino vineyards below the walls. Autumn is when the region shows its hand, with new oil, chestnuts and roasting meat filling squares that stay cold until noon. Spring brings wild asparagus and broad beans, and the festivals move outdoors again.
Most visitors to Umbria go to Perugia itself, for the escalators through the Rocca Paolina, the Corso Vannucci and Eurochocolate in October, when the whole centre becomes one dense crowd moving slowly past stalls. It is a fine city and the crowd is earned. But the pattern of a day trip there is well established, and the food you eat is the food a large city serves to large numbers of people.
The hills carry on past the ring road, and so do the tables. Smaller places across the province set aside a weekend, sometimes a whole fortnight, for a single ingredient grown or reared within sight of the walls, and the cooking is done by people who live there. Fewer travellers make the drive. These are the towns worth a detour when the festival dates line up.
Of the 37 communes we have mapped in the province of Perugia, 9 qualify as hill towns with a food festival: each is an inland hill settlement, and each holds a recurring food festival built around one local ingredient. The smallest, Paciano, has 957 residents.
Elsewhere in the catalogue: The best hidden hill towns with a food festival within 90 minutes of Perugia and The best hidden towns with a food festival in the province of Perugia.
Paciano
Why visit Paciano
The town is first documented in 917, in an imperial charter of Berengar I, and appears again in 1260 as a castrum, a fortified site. Perugia rebuilt the walls and main tower between 1461 and 1473, using the site as a watch-post over the western approach to the lake below.
Inside the circuit, three parallel streets are linked by orthogonal alleys, a layout that carries the Renaissance palace with the Vignola staircase, the oldest noble residence in the town, and the 17th-century Palazzo Cennini, once the summer residence of a cardinal. The gates and towers sit at the edge of this grid, facing outward toward the water.
Olive oil from the slopes that drop toward the shore is the present-day specialty. What remains is a small fortified grid, built to watch a lake, that turned its military purpose into a domestic one once the watching was no longer needed.
What to see in Paciano
- Medieval walls. About 600 meters of circuit, with the three original gates named Fiorentina, Perugina and Rastrella still standing among the eight towers.
- Palazzo Baldeschi. Assembled from earlier tower houses, with a staircase attributed to Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola. Now used as an exhibition and cultural space.
- Rocca Buitoni. The oldest surviving palace in the town, built as a noble residence inside the walls, with a small private chapel.
How to get to Paciano
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Perugia is roughly 44 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the months for Paciano. The slopes of Monte Petrarvella hold the wildflowers, Trasimeno is warm enough to swim from late May, and the olive groves run from green to silver-gold across the half-year. The Infiorata fills the three parallel streets each Corpus Domini in late May or June. Sagra dello Strozzaprete falls in August.
Fossato di Vico
Why visit Fossato di Vico
Fossato di Vico stands at 581 meters on the slopes of Mount Mutali, on the line of the Via Flaminia between Foligno and Gubbio. The Romans built a changing station here called Hellvillum after laying the road in 220 BC.
The borgo proper was founded in 980 by Lupo, called Vico, son of Monaldo, count of Nocera. In the twelfth century it passed to the Marsciano counts, who eventually sold it to Gubbio; in the thirteenth Perugia took it militarily and the commune declared independence.
What survives from that period is the network of covered passages called Le Rughe, stone vaults that turned the street into a defensible interior, a rare example of thirteenth-century castle architecture used as everyday infrastructure. The church of San Pietro, the oldest in town, predates the castle and was founded as a Camaldolese monastery.
The Chiesa di San Benedetto outside the walls keeps Eugubine-school frescoes including what is taken to be one of the earliest known portraits of a pope.
What to see in Fossato di Vico
- Le Rughe. Thirteenth-century covered alleyways under round stone vaults, rare surviving example of defensive castle-street architecture.
- Chiesa di San Pietro. Oldest church in town, founded as a Camaldolese monastery, Romanesque structure predating the medieval castle.
- Chiesa di San Benedetto. Thirteenth-century Benedictine abbey outside the walls, fragments of fourteenth and fifteenth-century Eugubine-school frescoes including an early papal portrait.
How to get to Fossato di Vico
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Perugia is roughly 47 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June brings the slopes of Mount Mutali green and the upper Flaminia corridor walkable in long evenings. September and October are clear, with first frost on the higher pastures by month's end. July and August push the lower valley into the mid-thirties; at 581 meters the borgo stays cooler, and the vaulted Rughe hold a constant temperature that feels engineered. Sagra del Cinghiale falls in August.
Bevagna
Why visit Bevagna
Bevagna sits on the floor of the Umbrian valley at 225 meters, where the Clitunno meets the Timia. Ancient Mevania, the name means she who stands in the middle, was a Roman mansio on the Via Flaminia, listed in the Antonine Itinerary.
A black-and-white mosaic of the 2nd century AD survives almost intact in the frigidarium of the Roman baths, twelve meters by seven, octopuses and dolphins in the center, tritons and sea-horses on the short sides. Piazza Silvestri at the heart of the centro storico holds two Romanesque churches that face each other at odd angles, San Michele Arcangelo and San Silvestro, built within years of each other in the late 12th century.
The Mercato delle Gaite each June turns the town into the year 1300 for ten days, four quarters competing on medieval trades and tavern menus, no anachronisms allowed. The Sagrantino slopes of Montefalco are nine kilometers up the road.
The re-enactment here is La Notte Medievale, usually held in September.
What to see in Bevagna
- Piazza Silvestri. Twelfth-century civic square ringed by the Palazzo dei Consoli, the churches of San Silvestro and San Michele, and the fountain of 1896.
- Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo. Romanesque collegiate church built by Binello and Rodolfo at the end of the 12th century, on the main square.
- Chiesa di San Silvestro. Romanesque parish church across the piazza, signed and dated 1195 by Binello, the same builder as San Michele.
How to get to Bevagna
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Perugia is roughly 39 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the months for Bevagna. The valley fills with green, the Sagrantino vines run on the slopes above town, and the rose festival fills the gardens around the walls in May. The Mercato delle Gaite runs the second half of June and is the single most concentrated weekend on the Umbrian medieval calendar. Sagra della Lumaca falls in August.
Magione
Why visit Magione
Magione sits at 299 meters on a hill east of Lake Trasimeno, fifteen kilometers from Perugia. The name comes from the Knights Hospitaller, who built a hospital here in the mid-twelfth century dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and called their convent Maison in their own language.
The original nucleus stood on the Perugia-Tuscany route and grew into the fortified base that still anchors the town today. The lower town is organized around two medieval poles: the castle complex near the old route, and the quadrangular tower rising thirty meters over the settlement, built in the same period by the same Order.
The vineyards on the surrounding hills lie between 250 and 350 meters above sea level, and the town's territory extends down to the lake's eastern shore. In October 1502, the castle hosted a plot against Cesare Borgia: his own captains and allies conspired against him inside its walls.
Niccolò Machiavelli, on diplomatic mission for Florence, learned the details and passed them to Borgia, who dismantled the conspirators within months. A hospital, a tower, and a plot against a Borgia: the town's history reads as a sequence of episodes gathered around the same fortified point on the road between Perugia and Tuscany.
What to see in Magione
- Castello dei Cavalieri di Malta. The fortified complex built by the Knights Hospitaller stands as the town's anchor, its walls the setting where the Conspiracy of Magione was plotted against Cesare Borgia.
- Torre dei Lambardi. Thirty-meter quadrangular tower built between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by the Gerosolimitani Knights, three floors and a summit terrace.
- Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista. Parish church inside the castle complex, dedicated to the saint of the original Hospitaller foundation.
How to get to Magione
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Perugia is roughly 23 minutes away by road.
✷ We have written about Magione
“The lake is like a sanatorium compared to the sea. It’s relaxed. It’s calm. It’s silent. To find this level of almost disturbing quietness, you either go up into the mountains, or you really need to know your way around the sea to find that particular spot not overrun by vacationers and beach people. In Trasimeno, this is easy. Even the most popular towns like Castiglione or Passignano sit in quiet harmony with the stillness of the water.”
Read our piece on Magione →Lago Trasimeno | Never Compete with the Sea
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the working months on the eastern Trasimeno: clear lake light, olive groves on the hills above, evenings cool enough to walk between the Castello and the Torre. July and August reach the low thirties in the basin; the lake helps but weekends fill with Perugia and Florence day-trippers and the lakefront frazione of San Feliciano runs heavy. The olive harvest in late October and November turns the territory busy with frantoi at full capacity. Festa del Giacchio - Sagra del Pesce del Lago Trasimeno falls in July.
Montefalco
Why visit Montefalco
Montefalco sits on a hill above the Umbrian valley, its walls laid out in two concentric medieval circuits with five gates, the inner ring still complete and the outer ring added in the 14th century by the Trinci. At the top, the circular Piazza del Comune gathers four converging streets around the Palazzo Comunale, the high point from which the rest of the town falls away toward the walls and the vineyards beyond them.
The name Sagrantino belongs to the slopes right around those walls, where the grape has been traced back to the 1st century AD, and three of the largest producers, Caprai, Antonelli and Adanti, keep cellars within four kilometers of the centro storico. The harvest runs late September into October.
The fresco cycle Gozzoli painted in the apse of the former church of San Francesco is counted among his most complete surviving works, and the town's own name for itself, the railing of Umbria, describes the same eastern walls where the belvedere gathers seven hill towns into one view. Wine on the slopes, frescoes in the old church, a view of the valley from the walls: a hill town whose economy, art and setting all sit within walking distance of each other.
What to see in Montefalco
- Museo Civico di San Francesco. Former Franciscan church holding Benozzo Gozzoli's fresco cycle, plus works of the Umbrian school, in a building that has stood as the town's museum since deconsecration.
- Piazza del Comune. Circular medieval square at the top of the hill, ringed by the Palazzo Comunale, the Oratorio di Santa Maria di Piazza and four converging streets.
- Belvedere of Umbria. Panoramic walk on the eastern walls that takes in Perugia, Assisi, Spello, Foligno, Trevi, Spoleto and Todi from a single viewpoint.
How to get to Montefalco
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Perugia is roughly 54 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the months for Montefalco. The vineyards run their full work cycle, the harvest of Sagrantino starts in the last week of September, and the railing belvedere holds the long Umbrian light. Settimana Enologica in mid-September brings producers from across the territory onto Piazza del Comune. Enologica Montefalco falls in September.
Assisi
Why visit Assisi
Assisi sits on a terraced spur twenty kilometers east of Perugia, the town built into the western flank of Monte Subasio where it drops toward the plain below. The Umbri settled the site before the Romans came, and the municipium of Asisium grew up around what is now Piazza del Comune, the square that still forms the civic center of the medieval town.
The centro storico runs between two poles: the basilica holding Francis's tomb at one end and the church holding Clare's relics at the other, with the Roman square and its temple facade sitting between them as the oldest layer beneath the medieval one. Below the town, on the plain, stands the basilica built around the chapel where Francis founded his order and died.
Further up the mountain, past the town walls, the hermitage occupies a beech wood where Francis and his companions withdrew from all of it. The layout traces the life it commemorates: birth and burial at the center, founding and death on the plain below, retreat in the wood above.
The town has arranged itself, over centuries, around the geography of one man's biography.
What to see in Assisi
- Basilica di San Francesco. Two superimposed churches over the saint's tomb, frescoed by Cimabue, Giotto, Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti.
- Basilica di Santa Chiara. Church at the eastern end of the centro storico, holding the relics of Saint Clare and the San Damiano Crucifix.
- Tempio di Minerva. Roman temple on Piazza del Comune, six Corinthian columns intact, one of the best-preserved temple façades in the country, converted to a church in 1539.
How to get to Assisi
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Perugia is roughly 35 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the months Assisi was built for. The hills around Monte Subasio turn green in spring and gold in autumn, and the pilgrim traffic spreads thinly enough that the centro storico keeps its silence in the early morning. October 3 and 4 are the Festa di San Francesco, when delegations from every Italian region process to the basilica. Festa di Sant'Anna falls in July.
Gubbio
Why visit Gubbio
Gubbio sits at 522 meters on the lower slope of the mountain, the old town stacked in four parallel terraces against it. The settlement was Ikuvium, one of the most important towns of the Umbri before Rome arrived.
In 1444 a peasant woman named Presentina found the bronze tablets in the area of the Roman theater and sold them to the commune in 1456 for 40 florins, a transaction that kept them in the town where they were unearthed rather than scattered to a museum elsewhere. The terraces order the town's life by elevation: the Roman theater and lower ground below, the civic square and cathedral stacked on the upper terraces of the centro storico, the patron saint's basilica set apart on the summit above all of it.
The Corsa dei Ceri each 15 May draws that vertical order into motion, three teams carrying wooden statues of Sant'Ubaldo, San Giorgio and Sant'Antonio Abate from the square at the town's center up to the basilica at its height, filling the town from dawn to dusk. The layout is not incidental: a settlement that predates Rome, a civic archive kept where it was found, and a race that each year retraces the climb from town to summit all point to the same fact, that Gubbio's history has stayed stacked on its own mountain rather than dispersed from it.
The re-enactment here is Festival del Medioevo, usually held in September.
What to see in Gubbio
- Palazzo dei Consoli. Built 1332-1349 by Angelo da Orvieto and Matteo Gattapone, the Gothic civic palace holds the Tavole Iguvine and the civic museum, its vertical pilasters dividing the façade across the square.
- Tavole Iguvine. Displayed on the ground floor of the palazzo, the tablets were recovered near the Roman theater and record the religious rites of the pre-Roman western world in detail.
- Piazza Grande. Suspended civic square between Palazzo dei Consoli and Palazzo Pretorio, hanging on substructures against the slope of the mountain.
How to get to Gubbio
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Perugia is roughly 51 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the months for Gubbio. The slopes of Monte Ingino are walkable, the Cammino di San Francesco passes through, and the air at 522 meters holds the Apennine clarity. The Corsa dei Ceri on 15 May is the single most concentrated day in town; book months ahead. Sagra della Polenta e Salsicce falls in July.
Spoleto
Why visit Spoleto
Spoleto sits at 396 meters at the southern edge of the Valle Umbra, the Apennines rising behind it toward Monteluco. The town was Roman Spoletium from 241 BC, then capital of one of the two great Lombard duchies of Italy from 576, controlling Umbria, Sabina, Picenum and the Pescara valley for more than five centuries.
The Rocca Albornoziana on the Colle Sant'Elia was built between 1363 and 1367 by Matteo Gattapone for Cardinal Albornoz, both a papal fortress and a residence, now the Museo Nazionale del Ducato. From the Rocca the Ponte delle Torri, 230 meters long and 80 meters high, crosses the Tessino gorge to Monteluco, an aqueduct of the 13th century built over Roman foundations.
The Duomo holds a Byzantine mosaic of 1207 across its façade and Filippo Lippi's last fresco cycle in the apse. Gian Carlo Menotti founded the Festival dei Due Mondi in 1958; the Roman theater, the Rocca courtyard and Piazza del Duomo still carry the program each year from late June into mid-July.
What to see in Spoleto
- Rocca Albornoziana. Papal fortress built 1363-1367 by Matteo Gattapone for Cardinal Albornoz, now the Museo Nazionale del Ducato di Spoleto.
- Ponte delle Torri. Aqueduct bridge 230 meters long and 80 meters high, crossing the Tessino gorge to Monteluco, 13th-14th century on Roman foundations.
- Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta. Twelfth-century Romanesque cathedral with Byzantine mosaic of 1207 on the façade, Renaissance portico, and Filippo Lippi frescoes in the apse.
How to get to Spoleto
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Terni is roughly 41 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the months for Spoleto. The town opens its gardens, the Rocca courtyard fills with sun, and the long walks along the Giro dei Condotti above the Ponte delle Torri become bearable again. The Festival dei Due Mondi runs from late June into mid-July, when Spoleto doubles in population and the Roman theater carries opera into the small hours. Sagra dell'Anguilla e del Gambero di Fiume falls in August.
Foligno
Why visit Foligno
Foligno sits on the left bank of the Topino where the river leaves the Apennines and meets the plain of the Clitunno, the point at which the mountains give way to the Umbrian Valley. The town was called Fulginium in antiquity, and Cicero mentions the prefecture in two surviving fragments.
The Trinci ruled the town from 1305 to 1439, and the palace that carries their name still stands at its center, with the cathedral facing the same square where the town's tournament has run twice a year since its revival. The city's oldest church predates the Trinci period by centuries, its site going back to an 8th-century chapel, while the abbey in the hills above town was founded still earlier, in 1084, its cloister finished in 1229.
Between the ancient prefecture, the medieval abbey, the Trinci court, and the print workshop that put Dante into type, Foligno reads as a valley crossing point where successive centuries each left a building rather than displacing what came before.
What to see in Foligno
- Palazzo Trinci. Seat of the Trinci signoria 1305-1439, frescoed by Gentile da Fabriano and Jacopo Bellini, now holding the Pinacoteca and archaeological museum.
- Cattedrale di San Feliciano. Romanesque cathedral on Piazza della Repubblica, built over the tomb of the bishop-martyr buried here in 251 AD.
- Basilica di Santa Maria Infraportas. Oldest church in the city on the site of an 8th-century chapel, frescoes by Nelli, Ugolino di Gisberto, Alunno and Mezzastris.
How to get to Foligno
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Perugia is roughly 42 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the months locals prefer. The Quintana runs twice a year, the June and September editions filling the rioni for a week each. April through October is also the season for the Topino river paths and the climb up to Sassovivo. Festevolezze falls in July.
More from Anywhere Italy
- The best hidden hill towns with a food festival within 90 minutes of Perugia
- The best hidden towns with a food festival in the province of Perugia
- The best towns with a food festival that you can reach by train in the province of Perugia
- The 9 best towns you can reach by train that hold a food festival within 90 minutes of Perugia
- The best olive oil towns that eat well in the province of Perugia
The best hill towns with a serious restaurant in the province of Perugia