What is Gubbio known for?

Millennial race held every 15 May, three teams carry wooden statues of Sant'Ubaldo, San Giorgio and Sant'Antonio Abate from Piazza Grande to the basilica on Monte Ingino. Seven bronze tablets of the 3rd-1st century BC, the longest text in the Umbrian language, found in 1444 and sold to the commune in 1456 for 40 florins. Gubbio is a Città della Ceramica for the gold and ruby lustreware perfected by Mastro Giorgio Andreoli in the early 16th century.

When is the best time to visit Gubbio?

Apr–Oct. 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. July and August touch the mid-thirties but the upper streets stay cool, and the cable car to the basilica runs early. October and November are the truffle season in the woods around Gubbio and Pietralunga, with the Mostra Mercato del Tartufo running in late October. December through March is quiet, with shorter hours at the museum, and the Christmas tree of light projected on Monte Ingino is officially the largest in the world.

Gubbio is a comune in the province of Perugia, Umbria region of Italy, about 43 kilometers from Perugia.

How do I get to Gubbio?

From Perugia, Gubbio is roughly 43 km by road.

Umbria · Perugia

Gubbio

Pre-Roman Ikuvium of the Umbri, where seven bronze tablets carry the longest text of the Umbrian language.

Known for

CORSA DEI CERI
Millennial race held every 15 May, three teams carry wooden statues of Sant'Ubaldo, San Giorgio and Sant'Antonio Abate from Piazza Grande to the basilica on Monte Ingino.
TAVOLE IGUVINE
Seven bronze tablets of the 3rd-1st century BC, the longest text in the Umbrian language, found in 1444 and sold to the commune in 1456 for 40 florins.
CERAMICS
Gubbio is a Città della Ceramica for the gold and ruby lustreware perfected by Mastro Giorgio Andreoli in the early 16th century.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

The festa: Ubaldo Baldassini, 15 May

Why come

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 Sunday letter

We haven’t written Gubbio’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

What to see

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.
Basilica di Sant'Ubaldo
On the summit of Monte Ingino at 908 meters, reached by cable car, holds the body of the patron saint and the three wooden Ceri after the May race.
Teatro Romano
First-century BC Roman theater in the archaeological area of Guastuglia, rusticated limestone arches of the lower order still standing.
Duomo di Gubbio
Thirteenth-century Gothic cathedral with single nave, on the upper terrace of the centro storico across from the Palazzo Ducale of Federico da Montefeltro.

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Plan your trip

Through the year

What happens here

Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.

Sagra della Polenta e Salsiccefood festival
usually held across July and August. Sagre Umbre
Festival del Medioevohistorical re-enactment
usually held in September. TrovaSagre

Living here

Population 30,479
Off the beaten pathi
Pharmacy in town
High school within a 30-minute drive
Nearest airport Ancona / Pescara, 1 h 26 min drive
Regional capital Perugia, 46 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

The numbers

Elevation: 522 m
Population: 30,479
Surface area: 525.78 km²

On the map

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These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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