20-05-2025
This fun-loving Italian city remains untouched by mass tourism
'It's like a time machine,' says my new friend Fabrizio Croce, as he leads me down a long twilit tunnel within Perugia's ancient city walls. As darkness closes in around us, I soon see what he means. We board an escalator that carries us up and up, from the archaic foundations at the foot of this steep hill to the bustling citadel at the summit. We step out into the sunshine, and I realise we've traversed 3,000 years.
We're standing in the Piazza Italia, surrounded by a sea of people. Some of them are here to eat and drink, in the sleek bars and cafés that surround this sunlit square, but most are simply drinking in the view. And what a view.
Below us, lush countryside stretches far away into the heat haze on the horizon. Welcome to Umbria, aka the green heart of Italy. And welcome to Perugia, its underrated, relatively undiscovered capital.
Like a lot of British travellers, I'd been to Tuscany several times before I even thought of visiting Umbria, its less fashionable and landlocked neighbour. More fool me. The gentle Umbrian countryside is just as beautiful as Tuscany, and since Umbria attracts fewer visitors, its landmarks are less crowded, and its hotels and restaurants tend to be better value.
Umbria's main attraction is Assisi, the sacred homeland of St Francis, and it was St Francis who first lured me here a few years ago. Like many visitors to Umbria, I flew into Perugia's compact airport and then headed straight on to Assisi, about 10 miles away, without delay.
When I told my Italian friends about my trip, they said I'd missed a treat. Unlike Assisi, Perugia isn't overrun with sightseers, they said. It's just as historic but a lot livelier, they said. I duly put Perugia on my Italian bucket list, and then promptly forgot all about it. With no must-see sights, it's the sort of holiday destination you tend to put off for another day.
Last month, that day finally arrived – and it turns out my Italian friends were right. Perugia has all the essential elements of a classic city break: fascinating art and architecture, fantastic food and drink. Why had I never got around to coming here before?
Perugia is such a pleasant spot, it's easy to forget it owes its spectacular location to its warlike past. The battlements that surround the Old Town are enormous, started by the Etruscans, completed by the Romans, augmented during the Renaissance and reinforced in every successive century. You can trace each period of Perugia's long history in these robust walls.
Chatting to Fabrizio, a suave and amiable middle-aged man who works for the Comune di Perugia (Perugia's city council), I'm relieved to hear I'm not the only Briton who's previously bypassed this handsome city. Sure, Assisi is wonderful, famous for its holy sites and precious frescos, but it's rooted in the past. Despite its antique architecture, Perugia is young at heart.
The thing that gives Perugia its youthful buzz is its thriving university. Founded way back in 1308, it's one of the oldest universities in the world (only Oxford, Cambridge and half a dozen others are older).
It boasts around 26,000 students, most of whom seem to be milling around the Piazza Italia when I arrive. There's also a smaller second university, solely for foreign students, which gives Perugia a cosmopolitan flavour that belies its modest population – barely 160,000, about the same size as Mansfield.
Fabrizio was a student here, half a lifetime ago. Like a lot of people who come here to study, he never left. He was born and raised in Naples, but you can tell his heart is here. He's passionate about Perugia and his enthusiasm is infectious. Although he works for Perugia's city council, he's not a typical bureaucrat – he's spent most of his working life as a musician and music promoter.
Stylish and slightly grungy, he personifies Perugia's laid-back, vaguely anarchic ambience. Perugia's mayor, Vittoria Ferdinandi, only 38, also has a background outside politics. As Fabrizio walks me round town, we bump into her, quite by chance. Perugia is that sort of place.
Fabrizio's office is in the Palazzo dei Priori – an ornate, intimidating building in the heart of the Old Town (in the olden days, criminals were hurled to their deaths from its upper windows, into the street below). It has been the seat of the city council since it was built, in the 14th century. On the top floor is the Galeria Nazionale dell'Umbria ( Umbria's most important art gallery.
Its Renaissance artworks are the big draw, above all the intimate religious paintings of Pietro Vannucci, aka Perugino (like a lot of Italian artists, he was nicknamed after his hometown). A pupil of Piero della Francesca and a teacher of Raphael, his tender pictures are still fresh and vivid, over 500 years after he painted them. Seeing them in a palazzo he would have visited really brings them back to life.
Perugia's broad piazzas are impressive, but its narrow backstreets are more alluring. Here you'll find the best streetlife – winding lanes lined with dank boltholes where locals sip their potent, fierce espressos and swig big goblets of Torgiano and Montefalco, the smooth, seductive local wine.
By day, exploring this labyrinth of blind alleys is exhilarating. After dark, it seems more sinister. For all its flair and bonhomie, this feels like a city with a hard edge.
As I follow these dingy rat-runs down the hillside, I feel like a detective in a spooky thriller, lost in a maze of dead-ends and cryptic clues. 'Drinking cocktails saves the planet,' reads the graffiti on an alley wall.
Thankfully, during my three days in Perugia, these creepy sensations were only fleeting. When the sun shines, Umbria's capital seems like a happy, hopeful place – somewhere I'm eager to revisit.
As I head for the airport, already planning my return trip, I recall how Fabrizio's eyes lit up when he told me about the visit of Miles Davis to Perugia's famous jazz festival ( held here every summer. Herbie Hancock and Lionel Richie are the big names this year. Maybe I'll see you there.
How to get there
Ryanair flies direct to Perugia from London Stansted.
Where to stay
Built in 1884, in a prime site on the elegant Piazza Italia, the five-star Sina Brufani is the grande dame of Umbrian hotels. Highlights include dramatic views from the rooftop terrace, and a swimming pool in the medieval vaults, built upon Etruscan foundations. Doubles from €252 per night, including breakfast – very good value for such a smart hotel.
Where to eat and drink
It's hard to go wrong eating out in Perugia. Here, even the most basic places serve first-rate food and drink. For superb coffee and scrumptious cakes and chocolates, head for Sandri, a debonair pasticceria founded in 1860. It's on Corso Vannucci, Perugia's grandest boulevard. The best sit-down meal I ate was at La Taverna, a traditional Italian restaurant hidden down a back alley, which breathes fresh life into familiar staples, supplemented by some superb local wines.
