9 Umbrian Hotels in the Hill Towns

Umbria is the only Italian region with neither a coastline nor an international border. It is entirely landlocked, ringed by Tuscany, Le Marche and Lazio, and that geography kept it off the trade routes that made its neighbours rich and busy.

The consequence is a region that looks like Tuscany and receives a fraction of the visitors. The hill towns are as good, the food is arguably better, and the roads in September are empty.

What is actually here

Assisi is the pilgrimage town, built in pink stone on the flank of Monte Subasio, with the basilica holding the Giotto cycle of the life of St Francis. It receives several million visitors a year and is entirely calm by six in the evening when the coaches leave.

Perugia, the capital, is a walled hill city with an Etruscan arch, a medieval centre reached by escalators running up through the buried streets of a sixteenth-century fortress, and a university that keeps it young.

Orvieto stands on a plug of volcanic tuff with a cathedral facade of mosaic and carved marble, and a labyrinth of caves cut into the rock beneath the town.

Spoleto, Todi and Spello are the smaller hill towns, each worth a morning.

Norcia, in the Sibillini mountains, is the food town — cured pork so associated with the place that the Italian word for a pork butcher, norcino, comes from its name. It was badly damaged by the 2016 earthquakes; the basilica of San Benedetto collapsed and reconstruction is ongoing. The town is open and working, and it is worth knowing what you will see.

Lake Trasimeno, on the Tuscan border, is the fourth-largest lake in Italy with three islands and almost no development.

The nine below are grouped by area.

The northern hills and Trasimeno

Toward the Tuscan border.

Castello di Reschio occupies a thousand-year-old estate near Lisciano Niccone restored over decades by an architect family, with fifty rooms across the castle and its farm buildings, a spa, a vineyard and 1,500 hectares around it. It is the most complete estate hotel in central Italy.

Vocabolo Moscatelli sits above Umbertide in a restored monastery with a small room count, a pool among olives and a kitchen garden.

Perugia and Assisi

The capital and the pilgrimage town.

Borgo dei Conti Resort occupies a seventeenth-century villa in parkland outside Perugia with a spa, a pool and formal gardens.

Nun Assisi Relais & Spa Museum sits inside Assisi in a thirteenth-century convent, with a spa built around the remains of a Roman amphitheatre beneath the building and the basilica a few minutes' walk away.

Borgobrufa SPA Resort occupies a hillside at Torgiano between Perugia and Assisi with a very large spa, several pools and full facilities.

Orvieto and the south

The tuff plateau and the Tiber valley.

Hotel Fonte Cesia occupies a converted building in Todi with a garden terrace over the valley and the piazza a short walk up.

Locanda Rosati sits outside Orvieto in a family-run country house with a garden, a pool and a long-standing kitchen.

The Sibillini and the east

The mountains and the food towns.

Palazzo Seneca occupies a palazzo on the main square of Norcia, family-run for generations, with a starred restaurant built on the local pork and truffle.

Eremito sits in woodland near Parrano as a former hermitage rebuilt in stone, with single cells rather than rooms, no wifi in the sleeping quarters and silent dinners. It is a genuine retreat and it is not for everyone.

What we have left off

The agriturismi across the Umbrian hills are excluded, and in a region of small farms they are the standard and often the best way to stay. They are farm stays rather than hotels.

What to do

See the Giotto cycle at Assisi early, before the coach groups, and go back to the town in the evening when it empties.

Go underground at Orvieto, where more than a thousand caves were cut into the tuff over 2,500 years — Etruscan wells, medieval cellars, wartime shelters.

Eat truffle. Umbria produces black truffle in quantity around Norcia and Spoleto, and it is a fraction of the price of the Alba white truffle a few hundred kilometres north.

Walk or cycle the old railway line from Spoleto to Norcia, converted to a path through tunnels and viaducts in the mountains.

Drink sagrantino from Montefalco, a tannic red made nowhere else, and the whites from Orvieto.

Practical notes

Perugia has a small airport; Rome and Florence are both about two hours by road, and the train from Rome to Orvieto takes just over an hour.

May, June, September and October are ideal. Summer is hot and the hill towns are busy. Winter is cold, foggy in the valleys and very quiet.

A car is essential. The hill towns have parking below the walls and you walk up.

Questions people actually ask

Why is it quieter than Tuscany?

No coast and no border. Umbria was off the trade routes and it has stayed off the main tourist routes too.

Is Norcia still damaged?

The 2016 earthquakes did severe damage and reconstruction continues, including the basilica. The town functions and is worth visiting.

Assisi or Perugia?

Assisi for the basilica and the setting, Perugia for a working city with a medieval core. Twenty-five minutes apart.

How many nights?

Five. One base covers most of the region.

If you only book one