Perugia

Up through the Rocca Paolina to Corso Vannucci and the Etruscan Well

Perugia's first morning begins underground, riding the escalators up through the Rocca Paolina. Day one covers Corso Vannucci, the Fontana Maggiore, San Lorenzo cathedral, the National Gallery of Umbria and the Collegio del Cambio. Day two goes underground at the Etruscan Well, then to the Porta Marzia and the aqueduct path.

Day one: park or arrive at Piazza Partigiani and ride the escalators up through the Rocca Paolina, looking at the buried medieval streets inside. Step out at Piazza Italia and walk down Corso Vannucci to Piazza IV Novembre for the Fontana Maggiore and the cathedral of San Lorenzo. Spend the afternoon in the Palazzo dei Priori: the National Gallery of Umbria upstairs, then Perugino's frescoes in the Collegio del Cambio. At dusk, stroll the Corso with everyone else and watch the light fade over the valley.

Day two: go underground at the Etruscan Well, then walk to the Porta Marzia, an Etruscan gate built into the Rocca Paolina walls. In the afternoon, take the aqueduct path between two hills and follow Via delle Volte della Pace along the old wall. If you plan several museums, ask at the tourist office whether the 48-hour City Museum Card is still on sale.

Umbrian lentils, Corso Vannucci tables and Eurochocolate

Perugia's cooking is Umbrian: olive oil, lentils and other pulses, and simple roast meats. Most visitors eat on or near Corso Vannucci. Dal Mi' Cocco serves old-style Perugian dishes, La Mediterranea is the pizzeria near the cathedral, and each autumn the Eurochocolate fair celebrates the city's chocolate making.

Most visitors eat along or just off Corso Vannucci, and that is no bad thing: the street runs from the Fontana Maggiore to a viewpoint over the churches and the Umbrian hills, and the walk between courses is part of the meal. Umbrian cooking leans on olive oil, lentils and other pulses, and simple roast meats.

Dal Mi' Cocco on Corso Garibaldi, north of the centre, is where to go for old-style Perugian cooking. Near the cathedral, La Mediterranea is the pizzeria to know. The restaurant of Hotel Brufani, the grand hotel at the far end of the Corso, does regional dishes built around legumes and fine oils.

After dinner, the Merlin Pub on Via del Forno mixes locals and students. Perugia is also a chocolate town, celebrated each autumn at the Eurochocolate fair.

Piazza IV Novembre and the Palazzo dei Priori

Perugia's main square, Piazza IV Novembre, is framed by the cathedral of San Lorenzo and the Palazzo dei Priori, which has housed the city government since 1293. In the middle stands the Fontana Maggiore, a 13th-century fountain counted among the best preserved in Italy; walk round it slowly to read the carved panels of months, trades and virtues.

The cathedral began as Romanesque, turned Gothic and was never finished, which explains the bare side facing the square. Inside it keeps a ring said to be the one Mary received from Joseph, and the Chapter Museum is reached through the cloister. Across the square, the upper floors of the Palazzo dei Priori hold the National Gallery of Umbria, with Perugino and Piero della Francesca.

The city has been a university town for more than 700 years, and its two universities and the Academy of Fine Arts keep the old centre busy year round. Steps of the cathedral are the students' meeting place on any warm evening.

The buried streets of the Rocca Paolina

The escalators from Piazza Partigiani climb through what is left of the Rocca Paolina, the fortress Pope Paul III built over a whole medieval quarter after Perugia rebelled against his salt tax in 1540. Perugia stayed under papal rule until 1860, and the Perugians tore much of the fortress down; what remains is an underground street of houses, towers and lanes that you walk through on the way up. Alberto Burri's Grande Nero, a 7.5 m kinetic sculpture from 1980, stands inside.

Umbria Jazz, Eurochocolate and Lake Trasimeno

Two events set Perugia's calendar. Umbria Jazz fills the city every July, with free concerts in the squares and the headline acts at the Arena Santa Giuliana, a stadium built in 1937 to plans by Giuseppe Lilli and renovated in 2018. Eurochocolate takes over Corso Vannucci in autumn; the 2026 edition runs from 13 to 22 November, and hotel prices rise accordingly.

With children, the Città della Domenica, about 6 km from the centre, is a 45-hectare park created by Mario Spagnoli in the late 1950s and often called Italy's first family amusement park. For a lake day, Castel Rigone, about 650 m up above Lake Trasimeno, has a sanctuary founded by Perugians during the plague of 1494, and Magione nearby has a castle of the Knights of Malta.

The Etruscan well and the old city gate

Perugia was an Etruscan city long before Rome, and two monuments make that plain. Under Piazza Danti, behind the cathedral, the Pozzo Etrusco is a shaft about 37 m deep cut in the second half of the 3rd century BC through clay and rounded pebbles. It worked as both well and cistern and is still fed by three underground springs. A narrow staircase leads down to a footbridge across the shaft, where you can look at the huge travertine blocks of the roof. The entrance is at Piazza Danti 18, and the site is also known as the Pozzo Sorbello after the palace above it.

A few minutes north, the Arco Etrusco, also called the Arch of Augustus, was the main gate in the Etruscan walls and opened onto the main street of the ancient town. Augustus added his name after Rome rebuilt Perugia, and a Renaissance loggia sits on one of its towers. From the arch, Via Ulisse Rocchi climbs straight back up to the cathedral, a short, steep walk along the line of the old cardo.

Inside the city, the tourist office publishes five short urban walks that each end at a panoramic terrace over the Tiber valley; the Carducci gardens at the top of the escalators are the easiest of them. In Magione, the church has frescoes by the Futurist painter Gerardo Dottori, who was born in Perugia, and the castle of the Knights of Malta stands just outside the village.

Perugia's student life is not only Italian. The Università per Stranieri, in the Palazzo Gallenga by the Etruscan arch, has taught Italian language and culture to students from around the world for a century, and its summer courses bring a young international crowd to the bars of Corso Vannucci.