I had pulled up a search on Orvieto and tacked this on -- but figured I may have better luck w/new post. <BR> <BR>We're arriving FCO and renting a car. As we plan to spend the last four days/three nights of a 3-week trip in Rome, we thought we'd drive to Orvieto and aclimate there for our first day and night. Would Assisi be a better idea? We'll be making our way north from there to (possibly) Asolo and Venice, (we'll have four nights/five days to get to Venice...where we do have firm hotel reservations!) <BR>

Orvietto is nice for a couple of hours, but i think Assisi is more interesting, but the place we enjoyed the most on that area was Spoletto. Check it out.

Good question, Diane! We're going to be in Rome for 11 days and are thinking of a couple day trips, perhaps at least one to the same area. <BR> <BR>Anyone have any comments on other towns in Umbria (such as, for example, Perugia), besides Orvieto, Assisi, and Spoleto?

Diane, It is also a question of driving time. I would take the coast road from the airport and then up past <BR>Viterbo and take S-2 north to exit for the fabulous Civita di Bagnoregio. Then you are only :20 from Orvieto, and it is a perfect place to spend your first nite to recover. I would then meander up past the Umbrian hill towns and stay somewhere near Assisi as your base location for Umbria. There are nice places in Spello, Bevagna and Assisi. <BR>You will like Umbria. I would spend 3 nites in Umbria and explore.

Diane, we stayed 3 nights in Orvieto & did day trips from there. We loved the city. Very unique, not many tourists, very artsy, modern town above ancient Etruscan caves. Defintely take the cave tour! Civita di Bagnoregio is fabulous. Be sure to take coins for the parking meter before you leave your car for the walk uo to the town. The 2 local restaurants don't like to give change to unprepared tourists. We stayed at the hotel Palazzo Piccolomini a 4 star. It was excellent & in a quiet part of the town, right next to the 3 flights of underground escaltors you take to get there!

I have no clear cut answer for this, Diane. It really depends on the cities you want to explore next. Orvieto would be more convenient to Todi and southern Tuscany (Pienza, Montepulciano, St. Antimo, Olivetto Maggiore & Montalcino) and Assisi is more convenient to Spoleto, Perugia, Gubbio and Cortona). <BR> <BR>As a city in itself IMO there are no terms of comparison ... Unless eventually I had plans to visit Southern Tuscany, I'd opt for Assisi hands down even though the drive is about 40 minutes longer from the Airport. <BR> <BR>Paulo

Assisi was wonderful to stay in! I would vote for there. <BR> <BR>Is your trip in May per chance? If so, try to schedule it around the first weekend as the town has a great festival - Callendemaggio (very poor spelling) - where the 'hill' people compete in games with the 'valley' people. The last night of the festival is wonderful, as they (in residential streets) turn off all electricity and light the streets with torches. Tourists are not invited, but our hotel room had a great view of the feasting and merriment. Nothing like I've ever seen!

Diane: Here's my two-cents-worth--we LOVED Orvieto, altho we only spent one day there. Enjoyed the Basilica of St. Francis in Assissi, but the rest of the town seemed to be mostly tacky tourist shops (hope I don't offend anyone); do feel it's worth a visit to see the Basilica, tho. Thought Spoleto and Spello were nice and should be seen, if time permits--bought great ceramics in Spello, but were not able to see the frescoes in Duomo in Spoleto, which are supposed to be incredible. I can give you some restaurant recommendations in the above towns, as our hosts at the villa we stayed in gave us some and we ate in as many of them as we could. They also highly recommended we see Todi, but time did not permit us to do that or see any of the nearby Tuscany towns such as Montalcino, etc. E-mail me if you want the names of restaurants.