Hotel Villa di Monte Solare - luxury hotel umbria - hotel umbria - Panicale Perugia
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Tuscany
LAGO TRASIMENO AND CORTONA
Edged with low hills and gentle farming country, this is Italy’s fourth-largest lake. Its miles of placid water and reed-lined shores have a tranquil, melancholy beauty and many smaller medieval towns and villages are worth a visit like Citta della Pieve, Castiglione del Lago, Panicale, Paciano, Passignano and San Feliciano. In 217 BC the Romans suffered on of their worst military defeats on the shores of lake Trasimeno against the Carthaginian General Hannibal. Today you can explore the battlefield with over 100 mass graves near Tuoro sul Trasimeno.
Cortona, located a few kilometres north from lake Trasimeno, was founded by the Etruscans and apart from being one of the oldest hill towns in Tuscany, it is also one of the most scenic embracing a view of the whole of the Valdichiana. You will find a charming maze of old streets and medieval buildings, like the 13th-century Palazzo Comunale.
MONTEPULCIANO AND PIENZA
Montepulciano is a medieval and renaissance hill town of exceptional beauty. With an elevation of 605 m, it sits on a high limestone ridge. Its walls and fortifications offer broad views over Umbria and southern Tuscany. The streets are brimming with Renaissance palazzi. Montepulciano is a major producer of food and drink, the vineyards providing the Vino Nobile wine that has made its name famous, is considered among Italy’s best by wine connoisseurs.
Located between Montepulciano and Montalcino, Pienza is a delightful village whose intimate little centre was almost completely redesigned in the 15th century by Pope Pius II, who intended to rebuild his birth place into a model Renaissance town. Intended as a retreat from Rome, it represents the first application of humanist urban planning concepts.
CHIUSI
In the past Chiusi was one of the most powerful cities in the Etruscan league, reaching the height of its influence in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Numerous Etruscan tombs lie dotted in the surrounding countryside, partly source of the exhibits in the town’s Museo Nazionale Etrusco situated in the historic city centre. It is one of the most important repositories of Etruscan remains in Italy and provides for plenty exhibits and vivid descriptions of the Etruscan and Etrusco-Roman culture. Part of the exhibition is set in the so-called Labyrinth of Porsenna, a series of tunnels under the town, built in the 6th-5th century BC and probably utilized in Etruscan-Roman times for drainage of rain waters.
AREZZO
Arezzo is set on a steep hill rising from the floodplain of the river Arno. In the upper part of the town are the cathedral, the town hall and the Medici Fortress (Fortezza Medicea), from which the main streets branch off towards the lower part as far as the gates. Arezzo is one of Tuscany’s wealthiest cities. Its prosperity based on a thriving jewellery industry. The town preserves some outstanding sights: foremost are Piero della Francesca’s famous frescoes in the church of San Francesco. A visit to the monthly antiques market held in the historic city centre around Arezzo’s Piazza Grande is highly recommendable.
Edged with low hills and gentle farming country, this is Italy’s fourth-largest lake. Its miles of placid water and reed-lined shores have a tranquil, melancholy beauty and many smaller medieval towns and villages are worth a visit like Citta della Pieve, Castiglione del Lago, Panicale, Paciano, Passignano and San Feliciano. In 217 BC the Romans suffered on of their worst military defeats on the shores of lake Trasimeno against the Carthaginian General Hannibal. Today you can explore the battlefield with over 100 mass graves near Tuoro sul Trasimeno.
Cortona, located a few kilometres north from lake Trasimeno, was founded by the Etruscans and apart from being one of the oldest hill towns in Tuscany, it is also one of the most scenic embracing a view of the whole of the Valdichiana. You will find a charming maze of old streets and medieval buildings, like the 13th-century Palazzo Comunale.
MONTEPULCIANO AND PIENZA
Montepulciano is a medieval and renaissance hill town of exceptional beauty. With an elevation of 605 m, it sits on a high limestone ridge. Its walls and fortifications offer broad views over Umbria and southern Tuscany. The streets are brimming with Renaissance palazzi. Montepulciano is a major producer of food and drink, the vineyards providing the Vino Nobile wine that has made its name famous, is considered among Italy’s best by wine connoisseurs.
Located between Montepulciano and Montalcino, Pienza is a delightful village whose intimate little centre was almost completely redesigned in the 15th century by Pope Pius II, who intended to rebuild his birth place into a model Renaissance town. Intended as a retreat from Rome, it represents the first application of humanist urban planning concepts.
CHIUSI
In the past Chiusi was one of the most powerful cities in the Etruscan league, reaching the height of its influence in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Numerous Etruscan tombs lie dotted in the surrounding countryside, partly source of the exhibits in the town’s Museo Nazionale Etrusco situated in the historic city centre. It is one of the most important repositories of Etruscan remains in Italy and provides for plenty exhibits and vivid descriptions of the Etruscan and Etrusco-Roman culture. Part of the exhibition is set in the so-called Labyrinth of Porsenna, a series of tunnels under the town, built in the 6th-5th century BC and probably utilized in Etruscan-Roman times for drainage of rain waters.
AREZZO
Arezzo is set on a steep hill rising from the floodplain of the river Arno. In the upper part of the town are the cathedral, the town hall and the Medici Fortress (Fortezza Medicea), from which the main streets branch off towards the lower part as far as the gates. Arezzo is one of Tuscany’s wealthiest cities. Its prosperity based on a thriving jewellery industry. The town preserves some outstanding sights: foremost are Piero della Francesca’s famous frescoes in the church of San Francesco. A visit to the monthly antiques market held in the historic city centre around Arezzo’s Piazza Grande is highly recommendable.
Via Montali, 7 - 06068 Tavernelle di Panicale (Perugia) - Umbria, Italy - Tel. (0039) 075832376 - (0039) 0758355818 - Fax (0039) 0758355462 - P.IVA 02409410541