2 Best Sights in Umbria and the Marches, Italy

It's only fitting that Deruta is home to an impressive ceramics museum, which is housed in the 14th-century former convent of San Francesco. The most notable pieces are Renaissance vessels made using the lustro technique, which originated in Arab and Middle Eastern cultures some 500 years before coming into use in Italy in the late 1400s and which incorporates crushed precious materials such as gold or silver to create a rich, lustrous finish.

The 14th-century Palazzo dei Consoli houses Deruta's Municipal Picture Gallery, and is only open on Sunday. The rich collection displayed over two floors includes frescoes and paintings by the Renaissance artists Perugino and L'Alunno, among other works from local churches. Upstairs, the Pascoli Collection features 17th- and 18th-century canvases, donated by a descendant of the prominent art collector and writer Lione Pascoli. Artists represented include Giovanni Battista Gaulli, Sebastiano Conca, and Francesco Trevisani.