In terms of its ability to surprise, thrill and capture the heart of the traveller, the region of Umbria has few rivals.
It is always difficult to explain the reasons of the "heart" and it is equally difficult to put into plain words the subtle and delicate flavour imparted by a trip to this many-sided region, which is so rich in aesthetic stimuli.
Furthermore, it offers irresistible appeals to the pleasures of the senses, stimulated by the scents and colours of landscapes that are endlessly changeable and so rife with memories as to become inexhaustible mines of art and culture.
A many-sided stage
Green Umbria, Holy Umbria, Region of the hundred towns. These slogans of old or recent invention seek to distil the soul of this land. Umbria is a region with many faces, all of them different, yet all of them of authentic local origin.
Likewise, there are a variety of dialects and culinary specialities, which include elements from Tuscany, Marche and Lazio to create original new blends. Although this is one of the smallest regions in Italy, it offers many different environmental settings, so as to create an outstanding landscape jigsaw puzzle.
In the centre of Italy
The exact geographical centre of the Italian peninsula can be found near Narni. In fact, ever since the beginning of its history, the region has always played a role as an important crossroads for men, ideas and cultures, which have become rooted with ingenious results of outstanding quality in the field of the arts.
This privileged central position has also moulded its people's "character", which is welcoming and open as is well known by the many foreign travellers who in the course of recent centuries have dreamt of settling here, and by the many who now live here, appreciating the wholly special quality of life in Umbria's towns and countryside.
Umbria is also the heart of Italy because it is quick to get there, thanks to the efficient road network: the region is in fact served by the Autostrada del Sole, a major motorway linking Milan and Rome, and its entire width is crossed by the E45, in other words by the Cesena-Orte Superstrada, which is classified as one of the international routes from the North to the South of Italy. Moreover, within the regional territory, everything is so close that a short journey is all it takes to go from luminous Lake Trasimeno to the rugged, woody settings of the Gubbio basin, from the serene, olive-covered landscapes of the Umbrian or Spoleto Valley to the spectacular plateaux of Castelluccio and Norcia, from the verdant Valnerina, studded with towers and castles, to the Sibillini mountains, rich in myths and legends, the gentle hills of the Amelia district and the rugged gullies cutting into the volcanic soil of Orvieto.
The gentle Umbrian countryside
In these varied and changing landscapes, myth and reality, spirituality and an enduring material civilisation are interwoven and often become blurred, in a reflecting interplay that adds to the allure of the region.
The Umbrian countryside before our eyes is the soft and luminous one characterised by undulating expanses of hills and clear waters that Perugino evoked in his masterpieces; a trip to the mountains and valleys of Spoleto and Foligno, on the other hand, provides tormented views of the Gothic landscape, just as it was seen by the mediaeval artists who journeyed through the Apennine passes. In Umbria, the poetic invention of the great painters of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is mirrored in the actual forms of the concrete space.
Region of a hundred towns
Each area of countryside is governed by an urban centre, in a sort of kaleidoscope of small, not to mention minute, independent entities.
Statistics reveal a low territorial density, and yet the whole of Umbria is studded with minor towns, villages and castles, which are often set in spectacular positions in the countryside. This originality of the Umbrian web of settlements is rooted in the Middle Ages, but the premises for a strong and stable relationship between man and the environment had already been established at the time of the Etruscans and then of the Roman colonisation.
In Umbria, art and nature, landscape and architecture and town and country appear to be in perfect harmony. Beauty is spread across the region but prevails in the masterpieces in the towns. The cathedrals of Orvieto and Spoleto, the public buildings in Perugia, Todi and Gubbio and the Franciscan Basilica in Assisi are the summits of a vocation for beauty that belongs to the whole region.
The ideas and the culture that produced those masterpieces can be found in the tranquil harmony of the many squares in the "hundred towns" of Umbria, in the great basilicas and in the country parish churches, in the magnificent fresco cycles and in the astonishing Mannerist and Baroque decorations in small village churches.
An ancient land looking to the future
The Umbria of silence, of memory and of spirituality does not conflict, but instead fits in perfectly, with the Umbria of great musical and social events of international importance: Umbria Jazz, Spoleto Festival, the "Festival delle Nazioni" and the "Sagra Musicale Umbra". The vitality of Umbrian culture, which has produced outstanding masterpieces, each one of which, alone, would be worth the trip, takes shape nowadays in the form of a widespread museum system that is at the cutting edge in Italy and is present in the region's cities and small towns with numerous, heterogeneous structures: from the great collections in Perugia, to the highly-prized art museums in Foligno, Montefalco and Cascia, which are housed in prestigious venues, to the thematic museums in Torgiano (devoted to wine) and Deruta (ceramics), to ethnographic and work-related museums (the fishing museum in San Feliciano is unique of its kind), and finally to the atmospheric former tobacco drying rooms in Città di Castello, ingeniously converted by Alberto Burri into exhibition venues for his works of art.
Modern art erupts in ancient settings: Aldo Rossi and Gerardo Dottori in Perugia, Emilio Greco in Orvieto, Alexander Calder in Spoleto and Armando Pomodoro in Terni.
New frontiers
The search for new ways of development has never jeopardised the unity that exists between Umbria's ancient soul and its modern soul. The enhancement of its great agricultural and artisan tradition blends well with the high-quality services sector with advanced technologies, which make it possible to glimpse new frontiers: examples of this are the Multimedia Centre in Terni and the Environmental Documentation Centre on Isola Polvese, among the most advanced in Europe. The protection of the immense cultural heritage and the promotion of first-class tourism are the challenge of the future.
The Umbria of memory offers visitors ancient convents, rustic farmhouses, abbeys and castles renovated in a modern manner to provide accommodation for tourists that is in keeping with the building's original character.
Source: http://www.umbria2000.it |
