december trip to umbria-urgent help required..
 

My husband and I want to do a trip somewhere in Europe (from London)around the 22nd of Dec and ofcourse have left it too late!! but somehow tickets to perugia are still available within our budget so we were wondering if its a nice place to visit-visited Florence/sienna/pisa last year and really loved it esp Sienna.
We were thinking of making Perugia are base and doing lots of day trips by either bus or train-maybe even going down to rome for a night..
please give us your ideas-we love visiting small villages and towns.Also since its christmas, would public transport be running for day trips and would places be open.I guess a lot of small towns would be closed on christmas day??looking fowrad to some urgent help with our planning..

Sorry, but I feel it is difficult to do what you planned, if you are no car.
Really.



Vincenzo

Umbria is best explored by car, especially if you want to go to the small towns. Trains and buses will be running, but on a shortened holidya schedule. If you arrive in a town by train/bus and find many things closed and want to move on, you'd have to wait for the next train or bus and that could be a while. Consider renting a car. You can drive into the mountains by Norcia for some spectacular scenery.

unfortunately, we can't hire a car as we have just moved to London and don't have our driving license etc sorted out.. But I do believe that Perugia is a goos junction for buses-anu suggestions for day trips, pl.. and will places be open during christmas?

I too think Umbria is best explored by car, but basing yourself in Perugia makes public transportation easier. You won't be able to visit some of the smaller hilltowns, as many don't have train or bus stations, but daytrips to Assisi and Orvieto and the like would be doable.

Because you will be there on Christmas, have you considered the possibility of renting an apartment and having a Christmas dinner there? I think there is something romantic and appealing about using the local markets to shop for ingredients and preparing the dinner oneself. Of course it's not everyone's cup of tea but its an option if you can't find anything else open. I would imagine that the churches would have Christmas services, so that would be a fun and interesting way to spend some time on Christmas as well.

Best wishes and happy planning!
Tracy

Hi Jungli - Assisi, Cortona, Gubbio, Spoleto, Todi, Trevi, Siena and even Rome are all options by public transport from Perugia.

Hope this helps ...

Steve

Thank you so much for the helpful tips-will plan it all by today/tom!

jungli,

We did this trip 2 years ago between xmas and ney year and had a wonderful time. We stayed in hotel Sangallo, www.sangallo.it which is just on top of the regional bus station and took public transport to visit the neighbouring towns with both kids. The hotel had a special half board offer for years' end. It has a small swimming pool and a restaurant where we ate well in the evening.
The town of Perugia is also very beautiful to visit.
Although it is true that Umbria is better visited by private car, we adapted to the bus scheme and got along very well.
Don't worry, go for it!