galelstorm, the Montefalco-Bevagna-Trevi area is actually not a bad choice - not just for dining, also as your "Umbrian homebase". But the region is small; anywhere in the Assisi-Spoleto-Todi triangle (Umbria's heartland) is fine. As for recommendations what to see, many are already on this thread! You won't want to leave without having seen Perugia, Assisi, Montefalco, Todi, the so-called Tempio del Clitunno near Trevi, Spoleto, and actually the Piano Grande, though this latter is also a question of time. Sights running a close second are Bevagna, Orvieto, Spello, Città della Pieve, Lugnano in Teverina; and also worth seeing are Gubbio, Panicale, Morra, Trevi, Foligno, Narni, Norcia - just to give you a general idea. A car is absolutely indispensable for Umbria.

pebbles, that's very easy - just go to Cantalupo, which is a tiny village, and look for the signs heading to "Antico Frantoio Umbro" - that's Nunzi! They also have a website: http://www.anticofrantoionunzi.it/ - the pin on their map, however, is misplaced and doesn't show the precise location of the oil mill. But their telephone number is given - I suggest printing it, and calling if you really get lost. Though everybody in a "big city" like Cantalupo (300 inhabitants, I'd guess) will know to show you the way.

Great suggestions from all, especially to Franco for your extended itinerary and links. I can plan my trip around them!
Multo grazie!

Any updates from Franco?

Further updates, no - the last one is only from last summer, and unfortunately, I have no possibility to travel to Umbria more often than that, even though I'd like to...

Thanks Franco. My wife and I in our healthy 70s will spend a week in Montepulciano in early May 2010 and probably move to Perugia for the best part of a week. Your posts have been invaluable. We like to use public transport where we can and that seems ok from Perugia. We will have four weeks in Italia.

Do move to Perugia for that week, you won't regret it! The contrast between the Renaissance area around Montepulciano, and the medieval Perugia area is going to intrigue you. Enjoy!

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franco, it's been about a year since we've heard from you.

Any new Umbrian delights on your radar screen?

Oh, I've been very active on other threads. I've just not been to Umbria recently... oh wait, except for one excursion from Tuscany, whose result I mentioned here on this thread, but without explaining it. Which most definitely I should...
Morra is worth seeing, I wrote above. Morra is a tiny hamlet on the north-western edge of Umbria, near Città di Castello; and it harbours a tiny, humble village church, S. Crescentino. The custodian lives in the house next to the church; although opening hours were displayed, the church was closed when I visited, and I had to ring him out with some persistence. Inside the church, some of Luca Signorelli's best paintings. A revelation, and definitely a little-known gem.
Speaking of Umbrian delights, something else springs to my mind: following the success of their lentils, the people of Castelluccio bethought themselves of other all-but-forgotten legumes, and are now also selling roveia (wild pea), cf. http://www.parks.it/parco.nazionale....prodotti=1742; from coarse roveia flour (the so-called farecchiata), a polenta-style mush can be cooked, which is extraordinarily delicious, but really difficult to prepare, so I suggest sampling it at the great Taverna Castelluccio; plus they're selling cicerchie (chickling peas, a legume that doesn't just sound but also taste similar to chickpeas, just a hundred times more delicious; at home, it's easy to make incomparable soups with it). Cf. http://www.parks.it/prodotti.tipici/..._prodotti=2502

just found this thread for the first time - what have I been missing? [a rhetorical question, BTW].

I'll definitely be back for a better look.

Ahh...I knew there'd something new to look forward to!

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