The best small olive oil towns in the province of Perugia
Olive oil in the province of Perugia is a November subject. The mills run at night, the air outside them smells of crushed leaf and pepper, and the new oil goes onto bruschetta grilled over vine cuttings, cloudy and green and hot at the back of the throat. The groves climb in terraces held by dry stone, silver against the pink limestone the towns are built from, and the trees here are small and low because the winters bite. Moraiolo, Frantoio, Leccino: the varieties are the reason Umbrian oil tastes bitter in the way people who like it want it to be bitter.
Most visitors to the region take the oil as a side note to Assisi. The basilica draws coach parties by the hundredweight, the pilgrim route fills the streets from Easter through autumn, and the shops along Via San Francesco sell tins of oil to people who will not see a grove or a mill. Perugia itself absorbs another share, and both are worth their reputations. Neither has much room left over in high season.
The groves do not stop at the edge of the famous places. They run south along the flank of the Martani hills, east into the Valnerina, west towards Trasimeno, and the towns among them are the ones that actually press. Each of the towns here belongs to the national association of olive-oil towns, which means the mills, the tastings and the harvest-season festivals are part of civic life rather than a gift-shop line. Fewer people go, and the frantoi are easier to walk into.
Of the 37 communes we have mapped in the province of Perugia, 13 qualify as olive oil towns: each belongs to the national association of olive-oil towns. This list is the small ones, 6 in all, ordered smallest first. The smallest, Vallo di Nera, has 345 residents.
If you are still choosing, we have also written The 9 best small olive oil towns in Umbria and The 9 best olive oil towns within 90 minutes of Terni.
Vallo di Nera
Why visit Vallo di Nera
Vallo di Nera sits at 467 meters on a spur of the upper Valnerina, above the Nera river. The town of Spoleto granted the men of Vallo permission to build a castle here in 1217, on the hill where an earlier fortress had stood; the stone houses, the walls and the two symmetrical gates, Portella and Portaranne, have barely changed in eight centuries.
Inside, the village climbs in concentric rings to the Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta at the top, built in 1176 and given to the Franciscans in the 13th century, who turned a defensive tower into a bell tower and frescoed the apse with a cycle of the Giotto school dated 1383. The Procession of the Whites, traceable to 1401, still leaves the church each year.
The population today is 345, smaller than at any point in the medieval records. Black truffle from the woods above and olive oil from the slopes down to the river are the surviving trades.
What to see in Vallo di Nera
- Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta. Built 1176, Franciscan from the 13th century, with frescoes of the Giotto school dated 1383 in the apse, by Cola di Pietro da Camerino among others.
- Medieval walls. Twelfth-century walls and towers still encircle the village, with two original symmetrical gates, Portella and Portaranne.
- Centro storico. Light stone houses leaning against each other on three concentric rings, with embrasures, narrow alleys and stone portals preserved since 1217.
How to get to Vallo di Nera
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 53 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the months for Vallo di Nera. The Valnerina is green, the Nera river runs cold, and the trails up to Sellano or down to Scheggino are walkable. July and August push the valley into the mid-thirties; the stone houses hold their cool but most of the 345 residents close shutters between two and six.
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.
Campello sul Clitunno
Why visit Campello sul Clitunno
Campello sul Clitunno sits at 290 meters along the Clitunno river, a few kilometers north of Spoleto. The name comes from the Counts Campello, originally Champeaux of Reims, who founded the hilltop nucleus of Campello Alto in the mid-10th century under the Burgundian noble Rovero.
The Fonti del Clitunno, the springs that form the river, produce 1,300 to 1,500 liters of water per second; Pliny the Younger wrote about them, and Lord Byron and Giosuè Carducci returned to the place in poems centuries later, the latter with the ode Le fonti del Clitumno. A kilometer downstream from the springs, in the frazione of Pissignano, the Tempietto del Clitunno is a 4th- or 5th-century pagan sacellum reworked by the Lombards in the 7th and 8th centuries; the interior frescoes have parallels with Santa Maria Antiqua in Rome.
The Tempietto entered the UNESCO World Heritage List in June 2011 as part of the serial site The Lombards in Italy: Places of Power. The Castello di Pissignano above the temple covers the medieval layer.
What to see in Campello sul Clitunno
- Tempietto del Clitunno. Small temple-shaped chapel of the 4th-5th century reworked by the Lombards in the 7th-8th, with frescoes of the Saviour, Peter and Paul; UNESCO World Heritage.
- Fonti del Clitunno. Springs producing 1,300-1,500 liters per second, forming the source of the Clitunno; visited by Pliny, Byron and Carducci.
- Castello di Pissignano. Eleventh-twelfth century hilltop castle just above the Tempietto, founded by Benedictine monks who enclosed the settlement with walls.
How to get to Campello sul Clitunno
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 86 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the months for Campello sul Clitunno. The springs run cold and full, the willows along the lake at the source hold the morning light, and the trails between the Tempietto and Campello Alto are walkable in shade. July and August touch the mid-thirties in the Spoleto valley; the Fonti basin runs a few degrees cooler at the water's edge.
Giano dell'Umbria
Why visit Giano dell'Umbria
Giano dell'Umbria sits at 547 meters on the eastern slope of a mountain range, inside the triangle between Foligno, Spoleto and Todi. The territory is dotted with small medieval castles, Montecchio and Morcicchia the most intact, and small Romanesque churches scattered between the olive groves.
The abbey stands just outside the walls of the capoluogo, while Montecchio, the castle, the frazione and the Antiquarium together, sits apart on its own ridge above Bastardo, closer to the Via Flaminia than to the main town. The commune is also the seat of the DOC Spoleto wine, with the Trebbiano Spoletino grape reborn here in the last decade, and the olive groves around Bastardo supply the Frantoi Aperti weekends every November.
Abbey, castle and grove read as three settlements on one slope: a religious center below the walls, a fortified outpost on the ridge, and an agricultural economy spread through the land between them.
What to see in Giano dell'Umbria
- Abbazia di San Felice. The crypt below the church is the part worth the stop, a Romanesque space set beneath the rebuilt monastery, holding the ground plan of the oratory that came before it.
- Castello di Montecchio. Fortified on the Monti Martani slope along the Via Flaminia, held by the lords of Giano from the 12th century; the walls and position over the road are still legible.
- Villa Rufione. A rural villa site between Montecchio and Bastardo, on the Via Flaminia Vetus. Nothing remains to visit on the ground; the finds are what survive, held in the Antiquarium of Montecchio.
How to get to Giano dell'Umbria
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Terni is roughly 50 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the working months on the Martani slopes. The olive groves and the abbey grounds hold light well into the evening. November is the new-oil month: the Frantoi Aperti weekends open the mills, and the town fills for tastings of the just-pressed Martani oil.
Bettona
Why visit Bettona
Bettona sits at 353 meters on a hill north of the Colli Martani, looking across the cultivated plain toward Perugia. The Etruscans built here in the seventh century BC, and Bettona remains the only known Etruscan settlement east of the Tiber.
Stretches of polygonal walls from that period are still visible at the base of the medieval circuit, mixed with later Roman blocks. The town became a municipium under Augustus, declined during the barbarian invasions, was sacked by Totila in 548, and rebuilt as a self-governing commune by the late twelfth century.
Papal rule held from 1648 to unification. The Pinacoteca Civica, housed in the Palazzetto del Podestà on Piazza Cavour, keeps two paintings by Pietro Perugino (Sant'Antonio da Padova and Madonna della Misericordia), tabernacle panels attributed to El Greco, and Etruscan funerary stones and architectural terracottas from the territory.
The olive groves below town carry the Città dell'Olio designation.
What to see in Bettona
- Mura etrusche. Stretches of polygonal Etruscan walls visible at the base of the medieval circuit, from the seventh and sixth centuries BC.
- Pinacoteca Civica. Civic art gallery in the Palazzetto del Podestà holding two Perugino paintings, tablets attributed to El Greco and Etruscan finds.
- Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore. Main parish church on Piazza Cavour, with a reordered interior holding altarpieces and a Crocifissione fresco.
How to get to Bettona
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Perugia is roughly 27 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September into October are the windows that work. The olive harvest runs from late October through November and gives the town its working rhythm, with the frantoi pressing into the evening. July and August are dry and hot; the centro storico is small enough that midday empties it.
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.
Serpillo, Ottavi Mare have been named by a guide.
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.
More from Anywhere Italy
- The 9 best small olive oil towns in Umbria
- The 9 best olive oil towns within 90 minutes of Terni
- The prettiest small villages within 90 minutes of Perugia
- The best olive oil towns you can reach by train in the province of Perugia
- The best olive oil towns that eat well in the province of Perugia
- The 6 best hidden truffle towns in the province of Perugia