Product Description
With reviews of the best places to eat, drink and stay, to suit all budgets, this guide has accounts of sights from hill-town frescos and churches to the sulphur baths of Bagno Vignoni and Carrarra's marble quarries. It has tips on activities from the Siena Palio to the Gubbio candle race.
Excerpted from Tuscany and Umbria: the Rough Guide by Jonathan Buckley, Tim Jepson, Mark Ellingham. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
When to go
Midsummer in central Italy is not as pleasant an experience as you might imagine: the heat can be stifling, and from May to September you'll require luck to find accommodation in all but the most out-of-the-way spots. If at all possible, the month to avoid is August, when the great majority of Italians take their holidays. As a result many town restaurants and some hotels are closed for the entire month and the beaches are jammed solid. As the standard Italian idea of an enjoyable summer break is to spend a few weeks towel-to-towel on the sand, Umbria escapes the worst of the rush, but the problem of limited opening remains.
Florence throughout the summer is such a log jam of tour groups that the major attractions become a purgatorial experience - a two-hour queue for the Uffizi is not unusual. To enjoy a visit fully, go there shortly before Easter or in the late autumn - times of the year that are the best for Tuscany and Umbria as a whole, as the towns are quieter and the countryside is blossoming or taking on the tones of the harvest season. The Umbrian climate is slightly more extreme than Tuscany's, chiefly because of its distance from the sea; temperatures in summer are fractionally higher, while the hill-top locales of many towns can make them surprisingly windy and cool at other times. Winter is often quite rainy, but the absence of crowds makes this a good option for the cities on the major art trails. Bear in mind, however, that the high altitude of much of the region means many roads are impassable in midwinter, and in places like the upper Casentino or the Sibillini the snow might not melt until March or even April.
Festivals
It's always worth checking when each town has its festivals or pilgrimages. Accommodation is always tricky during these mini peak seasons, but some of the festivities are enjoyable enough to merit planning a trip around. Many have been crucial to their town's image for centuries - the most celebrated of these being the Siena Palio, a hell-for-leather horse race round the central square. The frenzy of Gubbio's semi-pagan Corsa dei Ceri almost matches it, as does the passionate commitment of Florence's Calcio Storico, a football match in medieval attire with no holds barred. Costumed jousts and other martial displays are a feature of several festive calendars, notable examples being the jousts in Pistoia and Arezzo, and the twice-yearly crossbow competitions between Gubbio and Sansepolcro. Holy days and saint's days bring in the crowds in equal numbers, with Assisi leading the way as the most venerated site.
Among the innumerable arts festivals, the highest profiles are achieved by the contemporary arts extravaganza in Spoleto, the Umbria Jazz festival in Perugia and the Maggio Musicale in more conservative Florence - but as with the more folkloric events, even the smallest towns have their cultural stagione. Finally, there's scarcely a hamlet in Tuscany or Umbria that doesn't have a food or wine festival, the region seeming to find an excuse to celebrate almost everything that breathes or grows. Appealing mainly to the local population and often lasting for just a day, these events place less stress on the hotels, though it might be a good idea to book a room if you're dropping by - fountains running with wine and other such excesses are pretty common.
