Casa Baldelli

40 minutes drive from the house and could possibly be combined in a day with Assisi.

A hilltop University city, the capital of Umbria, famous for its chocolate festival, Umbria Jazz.

The underground city is a must and the small winding streets are great for a good walk after a long lunch. Some great restaurants.

Main sights

Churches

• Cathedral of S. Lorenzo
• San Pietro: late 16th-century church and abbey.
• San Domenico: Basilica church of the Dominican order, building began in 1394 and finished in 1458. Before 1234, this site housed markets and a horse fair. The exterior design attributed to Giovanni Pisano, while its interior redecorated in Baroque fashion by Carlo Maderno. The massive belfry was partially cut around the mid-16th century. The interior hosts the splendid tomb of Pope Benedict XI and a wooden choir from the Renaissance period.
• Sant’Angelo, also called San Michele Arcangelo: small paleo-Christian church from the 5th–6th centuries. Sixteen antique columns frame circular layout recalling the Roman church of Santo Stefano Rotondo.
• Sant’Antonio da Padova.
• San Bernardino: church with façade by Agostino di Duccio.
• San Ercolano: 14th-century church that resembles a polygonal tower. This church once had two floors. Its upper floor was demolished when the Rocca Paolina was built. Baroque interior decorations commissioned from 1607. The main altar has a sarcophagus found in 1609.
• Santa Giuliana: church and monastery founded by heir of a female monastery in 1253. In its later years, the church gained a reputation for dissoluteness. Later, the Napoleonic forces turned the church into a granary. Now, the church is a military hospital. The church, with a single nave, bears only traces of 13th century frescoes, which probably used to cover all of the walls. The cloister is a noteworthy example of mid-14th-century Cistercian architecture from Matteo Gattaponi. The upper part of the campanile is from the 13th-century.
• San Bevignate: church of the Templar.

Secular buildings

• The Palazzo dei Priori (Town Hall, encompassing the Collegio del Cambio, Collegio della Mercanzia, and Galleria Nazionale), one of Italy’s greatest buildings. The Collegio del Cambio has frescoes by Pietro Perugino, while the Collegio della Mercanzia has a fine later 14th century wooden interior.
• Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, the National Gallery of Umbrian art in Middle Ages and Renaissance (it includes works by Duccio, Piero della Francesca, Beato Angelico, Perugino)
• Fontana Maggiore, a medieval fountain designed by Fra Bevignate and sculpted by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano.
• Chapel of San Severo, which retains a fresco painted by Raphael^[9] and Perugino.
• the Rocca Paolina, a Renaissance fortress (1540–1543) of which only a bastion today is remaining. The original design was by Antonio and Aristotile da Sangallo, and included the Porta Marzia (3rd century BC), the tower of Gentile Baglioni‘s house and a medieval cellar.
• Orto Botanico dell’Università di Perugia, the university’s botanical garden

Antiquities

• the Ipogeo dei Volumni (Hypogeum of the Volumnus family), an Etruscan chamber tomb
• an Etruscan Well (Pozzo Etrusco).
• National Museum of Umbrian Archaeology, where one of the longest inscription in Etruscan is conserved, the so-called Cippus perusinus.
• Etruscan Arch (also known as Porta Augusta), an Etruscan gate with Roman elements.

Art

Perugia has had a rich tradition of art and artists. The High Renaissance painter Pietro Perugino created some of his masterpieces in the Perugia area. The other High Resaissance master Raphael was also active in Perugia and painted his famous Oddi Altar there in 1502–04.

Today, the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria in Perugia houses a number of masterpieces, including the Madonna with Child and six Angels, which represents the Renaissance Marian art of Duccio. And the private Art collection of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia has two separate locations.

The Collegio del Cambio is an extremely well preserved representation of a Renaissance building and houses a magnificent Pietro Perugino fresco. The newly re-opened Academy of Fine Arts has a small but impressive plaster casts gallery and Perugian paintings and drawings from the 16th century on.

Culture

• The Umbria Jazz Festival is one of the most important venues for Jazz in Europe and has been held annually since 1973, usually in July.
• Sagra Musicale Umbra is a classical and chamber music festival.
• The International Journalism Festival (Festival del Giornalismo).
• Eurochocolate, chocolate festival and fair usually held in October each year.
• Music Fest Perugia, music festival for young talented musicians, usually in the summer.

Umbria Jazz Festival 2008

International Journalism Festival 2009

Eurochocolate 2008

Notable people

• Trebonianus Gallus (206–253), Roman emperor
• Aaron the Bookseller, dealer in Hebrew and other ancient manuscripts
• Bartolo da Sassoferrato (1314–1357), medieval jurist
• Baldo degli Ubaldi (1327–1400), medieval guitarist
• Biordo Michelotti (1352–1398), condottiero
• Braccio da Montone (1368–1424), condottiero
• Matteo da Perugia (fl. 1390–1416), composer
• Niccolò Piccinino (1386–1444), condottiero
• Agostino di Duccio (ca. 1418–1481), sculptor
• Perugino (1450–1523), painter
• Pinturicchio (1454–1513), painter
• Giulio III (1487–1555), pope
• Galeazzo Alessi (1512–1572), architect
• Vincenzo Danti (1530–1576), sculpture and civil engineer
• Ignazio Danti (1536–1586), mathematician, cosmographer and bishop
• Giovanni Andrea Angelini Bontempi (1624–1705), composer
• Baldassarre Orsini (1732–1820), architect, academic and art historian
• Annibale Mariotti (1738–1801), physician and poet
• Francesco Morlacchi (1784–1841), composer
• Luisa Spagnoli (1877–1935), entrepreneur
• Gerardo Dottori (1884–1977), painter
• Gabriele Santini (1886–1964), orchestral conductor
• Giuseppe Prezzolini (1882–1982), writer
• Aldo Capitini (1899–1968), philosopher
• Sandro Penna (1906–1977), poet
• Walter Binni (1913–1997), literary critic
• Antonietta Stella (b. 1929), soprano
• Giovanni Mirabassi (b. 1970), jazz musician

Not convinced already?