Foligno

A day from Piazza della Repubblica to the Spello hillside

One day in Foligno covers Piazza della Repubblica with its cathedral and Palazzo Comunale, the printing museum in Palazzo Orfini, where the first Divine Comedy was printed in 1472, and the frescoed halls of Palazzo Trinci. Spend the afternoon in Spello, a few minutes away by train, and use a second day for Assisi or Perugia.

Start the morning in Piazza della Repubblica, where the Palazzo Comunale and its thirteenth-century bell tower face the Cathedral of San Feliciano. Look at the cathedral's Romanesque side portal before stepping inside; the interior was remodelled later and is less interesting than the exterior.

Next door, Palazzo Orfini explains how a printing shop opened here around 1470 and produced the first edition of the Divine Comedy two years later. Allow forty minutes. Then cross the square to Palazzo Trinci for the frescoed halls, the picture gallery and the museum of tournaments and jousts, which is the best preparation for the Quintana if you are in town for it. The palace closes over lunch, so time your visit for before one.

After lunch walk to Santa Maria Infra Portas, the oldest church in Foligno, then take the short train ride north to Spello for the afternoon. Its steep lanes are the opposite of Foligno's level grid. Back in town for the evening, have dinner near the square. With a second day, ride the branch line on to Assisi or continue to Perugia.

Pork, black truffle and Sagrantino around Foligno

Foligno eats pork above all: cured meats, sausages and porchetta rolls from the Umbrian butchers known as norcini. Add hand-rolled strangozzi with black truffle, Castelluccio lentils and rocciata, the town's rolled apple and nut pastry, and drink Sagrantino or Rosso di Montefalco, both made a short drive west of town.

Wikivoyage sums up local eating in three words: pork, pork and more pork. That is fair. Umbria's butchers, the norcini, are the region's most famous craftsmen, and Foligno's trattorias lean on cured meats, sausages and roasted porchetta, often served in a bread roll from a market stall.

Pasta here is thick and hand-rolled, with strangozzi the regional shape, often dressed with black truffle in season or a simple tomato sauce. Lentils from Castelluccio and legumes from the plain turn up in soups during the cooler months. For something sweet, look for rocciata, a rolled pastry filled with apples, nuts and dried fruit that Foligno claims as its own.

Wine comes from close by. Montefalco, a short drive west, makes Sagrantino, a dark and tannic red, and lighter Rosso di Montefalco. Many restaurants in town list both. During the Quintana each rione runs its own taverna serving period-inspired menus, which is the liveliest way to eat in town in June or September. Outside those weeks, ask what the kitchen has cooked that day before you choose from a long menu.

Quintana weeks and day trips along the valley

Foligno's calendar centres on the Giostra della Quintana, a ring-spearing joust held on a Saturday night in June with a rematch in mid-September, each preceded by a parade of about 800 people in 17th-century costume. Spring suits day trips best. Spello and Trevi lie within ten kilometres, and Bevagna and Montefalco are a short drive away.

The calendar is built around the Giostra della Quintana. The first challenge is held on a Saturday night in June and the rematch on the second or third Sunday of September. Revived in 1946, it sends ten knights, one per quarter, around a figure-of-eight track to spear rings that get smaller each round. The rings hang from a carved oak Mars dating from 1613. The day before, a parade of about 800 people in seventeenth-century costume moves through the centre.

The rest of the year is better used for day trips. Spello, with its Pinturicchio frescoes and flower-lined lanes, is six kilometres north. Trevi climbs its olive-covered hill ten kilometres south, and Orvieto and Terni can be reached by rail with a change. Bevagna keeps a Roman mosaic and a medieval square, and Montefalco looks over the whole valley from its walls.

Spring is the best season for this kind of travel: the plain is green and the hill towns are not yet crowded. October brings the grape harvest around Montefalco. Winters are cold and quiet, with short museum hours.