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A Hidden Treasures of Italy Sampling of Umbrian Tours…
In addition to insightful walking tours of Italy's most frequently visited major cities, Hidden Treasures also works with a number of experienced guides who can accompany you to many of Italy's lesser-known areas and countrysides.
For example, one of our own personally-preferred destinations is the mystical region of Umbria, a region which “speaks in silence, giving the gift of peace with beauty to the world-weary traveler.” Traveling among its many spectacular cities and towns, all of which can be easily reached on day-trips from any central location, you will be easily seduced by Umbria's rocky hills and mountains, casting long shadows over rivers and green valleys of chestnut and elm woods. Beauty abounds – in the rolling hills dotted with castles, churches, and towers, as well as world-renowned handmade ceramics and magnificent art.
Various Umbrian City Tours (courtesy of Rosella Fiorucci)
Rosella Fiorucci is our favorite guide in Umbria. She is a well-traveled art historian who has lived and worked in Umbria for her entire professional life… and no one knows Umbria's countryside, cities, and art treasures better than she. Among her suggested town tour highlights, we would like to tempt you with just the following few:
Gubbio is in many respects the quintessential Umbrian town. Hugging the lower slopes of the Monte Ingino, it holds the most important surviving record of the ancient Umbri, a pre-Roman Italic people: seven bronze tablets from the third to first centuries B.C., engraved in Etruscan and Latin characters whose text gives us a great deal of information about their religious and political organization. At the foot of the town is a well-conserved Roman amphitheatre, still used for summer performances. An austere medieval town with grey limestone buildings, and steep narrow streets, Gubbio must be explored at leisure.
Todi , situated on a high hill overlooking the Tiber valley, lies within an admirably preserved ring of city walls, its sloping streets crowned by the main Piazza with Romanesque cathedral and the medieval city hall. The Franciscan church of San Fortunato begun in 1292, an example of Hallen Kirche with its three vaulted aisles of equal height, boasts the exquisite “Madonna con Bambino” frescoed by Masolino.
Assisi is perched on a hillside and guarded from above by a feudal fortress, visible from a great distance. The imposing Basilica of St. Francis is one of the greatest monuments of Italian art. It is the cradle of the fourteenth century proto-renaissance with its walls frescoed by Cimabue, Giotto, Simone Martini, Pietro Lorenzetti, as well as less famous but equally gifted artists, the “Giotteschi.” Assisi is also well-known for its Roman Temple of Minerva.
Rosella can also take you to Perugia, Spello, Orvieto, Norcia, Trevi, Bevagna, Montefalco, Panicale, Citta' della Pieve, Citta' di Castello, Spoleto, and other mystical Umbrian destinations… all with a knowledgeable insider's view!
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E-mail: info@htitaly.com or mariella@htitaly.com
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