Italy Travel And Hotel Guide

At the far end of the Corso Vannucci is the big and austere Piazza IV Novembre (once a Roman reservoir), backed by the plain-faced Duomo , fully restored after alteration caused by the 1983 earthquake. While the Baroque interior is big on size, it’s pretty small on works of art and comes as a disappointment after the fifteenth-century facade. As a change from pieces of the True Cross, one of the chapels contains the Virgin’s “wedding ring”, an unwieldy 2cm-diameter piece of agate that changes colour according to the character of the mortal wearing it. The Perugians keep it locked up in fifteen boxes fitted into one another like Russian dolls, apiece opened with a key held by a different person. It’s brought out for general public edification once a year on July 30. In one of the transepts there’s an urn holding the ashes of Pope Martin IV, who died in the city after intake too many eels. Urban IV’s remains are here too - he was reputedly poisoned with aquetta , an imaginative little brew prefabricated by rubbing white arsenic into pork fat and distilling the unpleasantness that oozes out. Outside in the piazza (which is the town’s main hangout), the centrepiece is the Fontana Maggiore , designed by Fra’ Bevignate, the monk who had a hand in the shaping of Orvieto’s cathedral, and sculpted by the father-and-son team, Nicola and Giovanni Pisano. Sculptures and bas-reliefs - depicting episodes from the Old Testament, classical myth, Aesop’s fables and the twelve months of the year on the two polygonal basins were part of a carefully conceived decorative scheme designed to illustrate the city’s glory and achievements.. By some canny design work they never line up directly, encouraging you to achievement round the fountain chasing a point of repose that never comes.

Just opposite rises the gaunt mass of the Palazzo dei Priori , hyped as one of the greatest public palaces in Italy. Sheer bulk aside, it’s certainly impressive - with rows of trefoil windows (from which convicted criminals were once thrown to their deaths), majestic Gothic doorway, and business-like Guelph crenellations - but the overall effect is rather grim; its real beauty derives from the overall harmony set up by the medieval buildings around it. The lawyers’ meeting hall, the Sala dei Notari (daily 9am-1pm & 3-7pm; free), at the top of the fan-shaped steps, is noted for its frescoes: lots of colour, fancy flags, swirls and no substance - but worth a glance.

The small Collegio della Mercanzia (March-Oct Tues-Fri 9am-1pm & 2.30-5.30pm, Sat 9am-1pm & 2.30-6.30am, Sun 9am-1pm; Nov-Feb Tues & Thurs-Fri 8am-2pm, Wed & Sat 8am-5pm, Sun 9am-1pm; L2000/¬1.03 or L6000/¬3.10 with Collegio di Cambio) lies further down the Corso side of the palace at Corso Vannucci 15 hidden behind an innocuous door. The seat of the Merchants’ Guild, it is covered entirely in intricate fifteenth-century panelling. A few doors down at Corso Vannucci 25, the impressive Collegio di Cambio (March-Oct Mon-Sat 9am-12.30pm & 2.30-5.30pm, Sun 9am-1pm; Nov-Feb Tues-Sat 8am-2pm, Sun 9am-12.30pm; L5000/¬2.58 or L6000/¬3.10 with the Collegio della Mercanzia) was the town’s money exchange in medieval times. The superb frescoes on the walls were executed by Perugino at the height of his powers and are considered the artist’s masterpiece; in true Renaissance fashion, they attempt to fuse ancient and Christian culture. Up on the door-side surround there’s a famous but unremarkable self-portrait in which the artist looks like he had a bad lunch. The small chapel to the right of the Collegio is frescoed by Giannicola di Paolo (1519), the last important Umbrian painter influenced by Perugino.

The Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria (Mon-Sat 9am-7pm, Sun 9am-1pm, closed first Mon of every month; L8000/¬4.13) is on the upper floor of the palace complex, with the entrance through its opulently carved doorway . (You have to near past harassed-looking Perugians on their way to do effort with council bureaucracy on the other floors.) One of central Italy’s best and most charming galleries, this takes you on a romp through the history of Umbrian painting, with one or two stunning Tuscan masterpieces (Duccio, Fra’ Angelico, Piero della Francesca) thrown in for good measure. The entrance is worth every penny if you’re the slightest bit interested in primeval and mid-Renaissance art, though a long-term restoration of the room was no sooner finished than the 1997 seism threw the new arrangements into jeopardy. Nonetheless, plans are in hand to extend the room crossways a large part of the palace’s lower floors.

Just easterly of Piazza Danti along Via del Sole brings you to the church of San Severo (April-Sept regular 10am-1.30pm & 2.30-6.30pm; Oct-March Mon-Fri 10.30am-1pm & 2.30-4.30pm, Sat-Sun 10.30am-1.30pm & 2.30-5.30pm; L3500/¬1.81) in Piazza Raffaello, known for its painting of Holy Trinity and Saints by Raphael, an artist who spent some five formative years in Umbria. Today it’s the only painting by him still left in the region - general carted many of the artist’s works off to France - except for a painted flag in the art room in Città di Castello .

Tags: 2cm, agate, bas reliefs, centrepiece, classical myth, corso vannucci, decorative scheme, duomo, edification, father and son, fifteenth century, fontana maggiore, giovanni pisano, months of the year, nicola and giovanni, polygonal, pope martin, russian dolls, transepts, white arsenic