Information on Umbria, Italy
Famous as home to St. Francis, Assisi is a picturesque city perched halfway up Mt.
Subasio. It attracts many tourists each year who come to see St. Francis's Basilica which, intricately decorated, is the grandest of the town's many churches.
Giotto commemorated the life of St. Francis with 28 frescoes in the Basilica. The
huge fort, Rocca Maggiore, towers above Assisi and is also a popular attraction.
Assisi's oldest nucleus, which is protected by a defensive apparatus made up of eight fortified entrance portals and a long belt of town walls, which are still perfectly preserved, is topped by two castles on peak of the mountain: the Major Castle, reconstructed by the Cardinal Albornoz in 1367 and the Minor Castle.
The region's capital, is a medieval hill town, containing the remains of its early Etruscan and Roman inhabitants. It also boasts well-preserved examples of architecture from many different eras. The town has a university that offers courses in Italian language and civilisation to foreigners. In July the town comes alive for the Umbria Jazz Festival.
The great "Guelf stronghold" rises up in the region's heart, with its 5 historical quarters closed-in by its Etruscan town walls. These enormous bastions formed by cyclopic square masses, were constructed 22 centuries ago and are still visible for long stretches.
When the city of Rome was little more that an encampment of huts, one could already enter the etruscan Perugia using one of 7 portals, among which one was particularly mighty, the Porta Pulchra or of Augustus, dating back to Etruscan times.