Perugia Founded by the Etruscans, Umbria's first city is strung out along the crests of a hill in the Tiber Valley, not far from Lake Trasimeno. Over centuries of papal rule, it accumulated art treasures created by some of the greatest figures of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Yet what is most amazing about the city is its wealth of little marvels - views, relics of the past, voices - which give the ancient town an indescribable atmosphere. And then there is its happy position at the center of an incomparable region like Umbria. So that it is just a short ride to the tranquility of Lake Trasimeno, the mystical ambiance of the city of St. Francis, Assisi, and the still intact medieval world of Gubbio and Todi. http://www.comune.perugia.it/

The Galleria Nazionale. In the historic center of Perugia, the splendid Palazzo dei Priori, now the City Hall, houses the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, one of the best-stocked museums in Italy. On show are masterpieces by Piero della Francesca, Arnolfo di Cambio, Fra Angelico and Perugino. But it is the variety of the works, almost nine hundred in all, that makes it one of the most important collections of art not just from Umbria, but from Tuscany and the Marche as well. In addition to paintings on canvas or wood, frescoes and crucifixes, there are sculptures in wood or stone, fabrics, gold work, miniatures and pottery, including examples dating from the thirteenth century AD. Founded along with Perugia's Accademia del Disegno in the second half of the sixteenth century, the collection grew while the academy of drawing was active and was enlarged even further later on, when the State took over the religious institutions of Umbria. In 1918 it became the Regia Galleria Vannucci. Today visitors to the museum are able to grasp the essence of the ancient mysticism with which the land of Umbria is still impregnated and, their curiosity whetted, go on to see the often extremely beautiful churches, scattered over the whole region, from which the works originally came, as if making a journey into the past. Above all, however, they should make a visit to the Cappella del Palazzo, frescoed by Benedetto Bonfigli in the fifteenth century with scenes and views of the city that have now vanished. A piece of Perugia's fascinating history that has been jealously preserved and is now accessible to all who are interested.

Oratory of San Bernardino. The façade of the oratory of San Bernardino is the masterpiece of the Florentine sculptor and architect Agostino di Duccio and dates from 1457-61. It is the most important work of sculptural decoration from the Renaissance period in Perugia. The façade is covered with a series of bas-reliefs representing the Glory of Saint Bernardine, alternating with images of virtues and angels, all set in the attractive pattern of colors that characterizes the facing. The oratory was built in honor of St. Bernardine, who often used to visit Perugia, staying at the adjacent monastery of San Francesco and preaching to the inhabitants on the expanse of grass in front of the church.

The Palazzo Dei Priori. The ground floor of the large and beautiful City Hall, one of the most important examples of this type of building in Italy, houses the seats of what were the city's two most powerful and wealthy guilds in the Middle Ages: the Collegio della Mercanzia and the Collegio del Cambio. The former was the headquarters of the merchants' guild. The Audience Chamber, roofed with two groin vaults, is lined with precious wooden inlays from the first half of the fifteenth century, probably the work of craftsmen from across the Alps. The Collegio del Cambio, on the other hand, was the seat of the Perugian moneychangers and was built onto the end of the Palazzo dei Priori in 1452/58. The most spectacular and lavishly decorated of its rooms is the Audience Chamber, which has survived intact and is a masterpiece of Renaissance culture. The whole of the lower part is lined with carved and inlaid wooden benches, while the walls and ceiling are frescoed by Perugino. Pietro Vannucci, known as Perugino, was one of the leading figures of the Renaissance and this cycle is unquestionably his masterpiece.

The Fontatana di Piazza. The fountain was carved by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, the artists who introduced Gothic sculpture into Italy, between 1275 and 1278. It consists of two large polygonal basins set one on top of the other. The Twelve Months are represented in the panels of the lower basin, symbolized by work in the fields and signs of the Zodiac. Pillars and slender columns decorated with ornamental motifs of classical derivation run around the monument, creating a marked pattern of light and shade. The fountain in Perugia, perhaps the most beautiful to have been built in Italy during the Middle Ages, can be considered one of the finest examples of a collaboration between two artists, in which the highest levels of harmony and perfection have been attained.

San Severo. The ancient church, built according to legend on the site of a temple to the Sun God, now appears in the guise imparted to it by the renovation of 1758. It houses, in the right arm of the transept, a Christ in Glory by Francesco Appiani and, on the high altar, a Madonna and Child with Saints by Stefano Amadei (1632). In the adjoining oratory of San Severo, dating from the fifteenth century, there is a precious fresco that was originally part of the nave and visible directly from the church. The large fresco is split in two horizontally: the upper part depicts the Holy Trinity surrounded by six Saints; below, in the middle, is set a niche with the Madonna and Child, a colored terracotta from the end of the fifteenth century, and, at the sides, six more Saints, frescoed in 1521. While the lower part is typical of the work produced by Perugino in his old age (it was executed in 1521), the composition with the Holy Trinity is by the great Raphael, and is an important example of his style during the brief period of transition between his stay in Florence period and the beginning of his Roman career. The fresco, dated by the critics to 1507/08, is also thought to represent a preliminary idea for the composition of the large scene of the Disputation over the Sacrament, frescoed a few years later in the Vatican Stanze.