Umbria is the Italy that Tuscany's visitors miss — a landlocked region of green valleys, medieval hilltop towns and a food culture of extraordinary depth, built on black truffles, Castelluccio lentils and the finest olive oil in the country.

Assisi is the most visited town in Umbria — the birthplace of Saint Francis, with a basilica that contains some of the finest medieval frescoes in Italy. But Umbria has a dozen towns of comparable beauty that see a fraction of the visitors: Spello, Bevagna, Montefalco, Trevi — each one perched on a hilltop, each one with its own church, its own wine and its own particular light.

Orvieto is the most dramatic of the Umbrian towns — a city built on a tufa cliff above the valley, with a Gothic cathedral whose facade is one of the masterpieces of Italian medieval art. The town has excellent restaurants, a good wine (Orvieto Classico) and a network of underground tunnels and caves that can be explored on guided tours.

Norcia, in the Sibillini mountains to the east, is the food capital of Umbria — a town of butchers and truffle merchants, with a Saturday market that is one of the finest in central Italy. The lentils of Castelluccio, grown on a high plateau above the town, are among the most prized in Italy.

Umbria rewards those who arrive without a fixed plan and leave with a full notebook. We will help you find the version of it that stays with you.