We are planning a trip to Umbria and Emilia-Romagna for April-May, 2006.

Am I correct that Perugia would be a convenient base for visiting Assisi, Spoleto, Orvieto, and Gubbio on day trips?

Is Bologna a convenient base for visiting Parma and Ravena on day trips?

I welcom any suggestions for visiting these regions.

I've visited both on separate trips, Gubbio on another trip, and Ravenna on yet another.

How much you can do depends, of course, on how much time you have and whether you are driving. I did everything by public transportation, which is more time consuming.

Personally, I preferred to stay in one of the smaller centers and to take day trips from there.

In Emilia-Romagna, I stayed in Modena and went to Parma and Bologna from there. I also spent two days in Mantua (which I liked less) and two in Ferrara (which I enjoyed very much); it is only about an hour away from Ravenna, whose mosaics are not to be missed.

While I have stayed in both Perugia and Assisi on earlier trips, my base for Umbria was Spello, a jewel-like hill town built of the same rosy stone as Assisi and almost untouched by time. Assisi is not more than 10 minutes from Spello, Perugia about 30 minutes. I also went to two other small, enchanting towns: Bevagna and Montefalco. I then went on to Spoleto for two days, which came as a bit of a shock: Unlike rosy Spello, it is largely built of a dark gray, rather forbidding stone.

The towns furthest from the center in Umbria are Gubbio in one direction and Orvieto in the other. Both are well worth a visit.

If your primary interest is art and architecture, then the richest towns, in my opinion, are Assisi, Perugia and Orvieto in Umbria, and Ravenna and Bologna in Emilia-Romagna, with Ferrara as a close third. For charm, all the others (with the exception of Mantua and Spoleto).

I second Spello as being central to see all of the places Eloise mentioned. We stayed at Palazzo Bocci in September and loved the hotel and the town.

We stayed in Perugia in October and it is located perfectly for travelling around Umbria. There are some negatives, however.

If you stay in the city center at the top of the hill, parking is next to non-existent unless your hotel offers it. If they do, it will be expensive; we paid €31 per day at the Brufani Palace. I felt it was worthwhile but that's a lot of money for parking. There are satelite parking areas that are much more reasonable but I was not willing to put up with the hastle of using them.

The drive in and out of the city becomes monotonous and, like any other large city, traffic can be frustrating. On the plus side signs are great and finding places is easy.

We didn't go to Spoleto we did visit the other cities you mention. From hindsight, I would happily have skipped Assisi and Gubbio. Orvieto was really nice and we probably should have spent more time there. If you do go to Orvieto, Civita is a short drive (maybe 45 minutes to an hour) and we felt was well worth the time.

We stayed in Perugia and daytripped to Assisi and Gubbio, both by public transport. We stayed in the old center on top of the hill. If your daytrips must be by train, the trip down the hill to the train station might become tiresome.

For the daytrip to Assisi, we had to get to the bottom of the hill and take a train. We took a city bus from the old center to get to the train station. This connection took perhaps more time than the 15-minute train ride to Assisi. The train stops outside Assisi, which is up the hill. A city bus at the station goes to central Assisi.

To get to Gubbio, we had to go partway down the hill through the interesting underground passages to the bus station. There we took a bus to Gubbio, a very pretty ride through a countryside of rolling hills. I think it took 60-90 minutes. The bus stops right in town.

We've also stayed in Bologna, especially to use it as a base for daytrips by train to Ferrara and Ravenna--very convenient. We stayed just a few blocks from the train station. Parma would also be easily done. Bologna is a great train hub--a number of train lines meet there.

I agree with those who've said Bologna is indeed a good base for Emilia-Romagna. I've used it as a base for visiting Ravenna and Ferrara (and Florence, actually, once), and it worked great. I like Bologna very much, it's a lovely city and thankfully still largely untouristed.

If you don't have a car, Bologna is perfect. It's the hub of the train network and you can get to Ferrara, Parma, Modena, Ravenna all in one hour. Mantua is a little longer. Florence is only 90 minutes

Thank you for your suggestions. They have helped us in planning out itinerary.