Umbria is the only Italian region that touches neither the sea nor a foreign border, which is most of the reason it stayed quiet while Tuscany next door filled up. It is hills, oak and olive, medieval towns built on the tops of them, and a set of very large churches in very small places, because this is where Francis of Assisi and Benedict of Norcia came from and the money followed the saints.
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The practical consequence for a bag is that almost nothing here is on the flat. Perugia, Assisi, Orvieto, Todi, Spoleto and Gubbio are all built on ridges and hilltops, reached by steep approaches, and explored on gradients and steps. Add a genuine church dress code, a landlocked climate with cold winters and hot summers, and mountains on the eastern edge that get real snow, and you have a region that punishes a bag packed for a Mediterranean holiday.
What Makes Umbria Different to Pack For
Everything is uphill
These are hill towns in the literal sense. Perugia's historic centre sits about 450 metres up and is reached from the station by a series of escalators through a buried sixteenth century fortress. Assisi is on the flank of Monte Subasio and its main street runs at a constant angle. Orvieto sits on a volcanic plug with vertical sides and a funicular.
Footwear decides how much of Umbria you actually see, and a day here involves far more climbing than the distances imply.
A continental climate, not a coastal one
Without the sea to moderate it, Umbria runs cold in winter, close to freezing at night with fog in the valleys, and hot in July and August at 32°C to 35°C. Spring and autumn are the good seasons and both are changeable. A merino wool base layer for women covers the wide daily swing, which in April or October can be fifteen degrees between morning and afternoon.
The churches are the attraction and they have rules
The Basilica of San Francesco, the Duomo at Orvieto, San Rufino, Santa Chiara and the rest are active places of worship with enforced dress codes. Shoulders and knees covered, for everyone, and the enforcement at Assisi is real rather than notional.
The mountains are higher than people expect
The Monti Sibillini on the eastern boundary rise above 2,400 metres, hold snow into late spring, and carry proper mountain weather. Castelluccio, the plain famous for its flowering, sits at about 1,450 metres and is cold and windy even in June.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Umbria Packing List
Footwear
The most important decision in this bag. Flat shoes with grip and some ankle support for the towns, where the surfaces are worn stone, cobble, brick and long flights of steps, all polished by centuries of use and slick in rain.
If you intend to walk on Monte Subasio above Assisi, in the Sibillini, along the old railway path from Spoleto to Norcia or up to the Marmore falls, waterproof hiking shoes are the right tool. The ground is limestone, mud and loose stone and the falls path is permanently wet with spray.
Clothing
Layers, and at least one set that covers shoulders and knees without thought, because you will enter churches constantly and often without planning to. A light scarf or pashmina is the simplest solution and takes no space.
Long light trousers or a midi skirt work everywhere. In summer the towns are hot and the church interiors are cold stone, so the layer comes off and goes back on repeatedly through the day.
Umbrians dress neatly and conservatively, more so than in the big cities. Nothing formal is required and beachwear is simply out of place inland.
For sun
A wide brim sun hat, sunscreen and sunglasses. The hill towns have narrow shaded streets but the piazzas, the approach walks and the Castelluccio plain are fully exposed, and the altitude on the eastern side increases the burn.
For rain and cold
A packable rain jacket in every season. Umbrian autumn rain is heavy and the winter fog in the Tiber valley is dense and cold. For December through February add gloves and a warm hat, which visitors expecting central Italy regularly leave behind and regret.
For the flowering, if that is why you are coming
The fioritura at Castelluccio, when the lentil fields go red, yellow, blue and white, runs roughly from late May to early July and the peak lasts days rather than weeks. It is at altitude, it is windy, and it is cold in the early morning when the light is best. Take a proper warm layer and a windproof, whatever the forecast says for Perugia.
Practical
Cash for the smaller towns, the farm shops and the truffle and ceramics places. Umbria's public transport between hill towns is real but infrequent, so a car makes a genuine difference, and parking is almost always outside the walls with a lift or escalator up to the centre.
What to Wear at Key Sites
Assisi and the Basilica of San Francesco
Two churches built one on top of the other over the tomb of Francis, frescoed by Giotto, Cimabue, Lorenzetti and Simone Martini. The Upper Church vault partly collapsed in the 1997 earthquake, killing four people, and the restoration took years.
Practically: the dress code is enforced at the door and people are turned away every day. Shoulders and knees covered, no vests, no shorts. Photography is not permitted inside. The town runs steeply along the hillside and the walk from the basilica up to the Rocca Maggiore is a serious climb with the best view in Umbria at the top.
Perugia
The regional capital, with the Palazzo dei Priori and the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, an Etruscan arch, a large student population from two universities, and the Rocca Paolina, a papal fortress that was built over a whole district and is now a covered street you ride escalators through.
Practically: the historic centre is at the top and the modern city at the bottom. Use the minimetro or the escalators rather than walking up with luggage. Perugia is livelier at night than the rest of the region because of the students, and Umbria Jazz in July fills it completely.
Orvieto
A town on a cliff of volcanic tuff with one of the great facades of Italian Gothic on its cathedral, and a labyrinth of Etruscan and medieval caves, wells and cellars cut into the rock underneath it.
Practically: the underground tours are cool, damp and uneven, so take a layer and sensible shoes even in August. The cathedral has the dress code. The funicular from the station saves a hard climb.
Spoleto, Todi and Gubbio
Spoleto has a Roman theatre, a cathedral with a Filippo Lippi apse and the Ponte delle Torri, a bridge and aqueduct eighty metres above a gorge. Todi is a compact hill town with three concentric sets of walls. Gubbio is grey stone on the slope of Monte Ingino with a funicular that carries you standing in an open metal basket.
Practically: the Gubbio funicular is not for anyone uneasy about heights or exposure, and closed shoes are required. Spoleto's Ponte delle Torri has been closed and partly reopened at various points since the 2016 earthquakes, so check before you plan a day around it.
Norcia and the Sibillini
Norcia, the birthplace of Benedict and the centre of Italian charcuterie, was very badly damaged by the earthquakes of 2016 and is still rebuilding. The basilica collapsed. The mountains behind it are a national park.
Practically: go, and go respectfully. Much of the centre is still scaffolded or fenced, businesses operate from temporary structures, and this is a working recovery rather than a ruin to photograph. In the mountains, weather changes fast, snow lies into May, and mobile coverage is unreliable.
What Not to Bring
Leave wheeled suitcases you cannot carry. Every hill town ends in steps and half the accommodation is up a flight of them with no lift.
Leave shorts and vest tops as your only option, because they will keep you out of the buildings you came to see. Leave heels, which the cobbles will ruin. Leave the expectation of a beach, because there is not one, and leave the assumption that central Italy means warm in winter, because Umbria in January is cold, foggy and genuinely wintry.
Essential Resources for Women in Umbria
Emergency numbers in Italy: 112 is the single European emergency number covering police, ambulance and fire. The direct lines still work: 113 police, 118 ambulance, 115 fire. For a mountain rescue in the Sibillini, call 112 and ask for the Soccorso Alpino.
Tourist support: Italy has no dedicated tourist police. Report a theft to the Polizia di Stato at the questura in Perugia or to the Carabinieri, who have a station in every town of any size, and either will issue the denuncia needed for insurance or a replacement passport.
US Consulate: there is no consulate in Umbria. The US Embassy in Rome, Via Vittorio Veneto 121, telephone +39 06 4674 1, at it.usembassy.gov, covers the region and is around two hours from Perugia by road or train. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: the Ospedale Santa Maria della Misericordia in Perugia is the regional referral hospital with a 24 hour pronto soccorso, with the Ospedale Santa Maria in Terni serving the south of the region and smaller hospitals at Assisi, Foligno, Spoleto and Orvieto. EU and UK visitors should carry the European Health Insurance Card or the UK Global Health Insurance Card; everyone else needs travel insurance, and check it covers hiking if you are heading into the Sibillini.
Official health authority: the Italian Ministry of Health at salute.gov.it.
US State Department travel advisory for Italy: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Italy: entry requirements, safety and health guidance, which includes the standing advice on seismic activity in central Italy that applies directly to this region.
Official tourism authority: the Italian national tourism board at italia.it, with the regional tourism service for Umbria, which is the reliable source for the Castelluccio flowering dates, the status of earthquake-damaged sites and the bus timetables between hill towns.
Solo women safety assessment: Umbria is among the safest places in Italy for a woman travelling alone, and it is an unusually comfortable region to do it in. Crime is low, the hill towns are small and their centres are effectively closed to traffic, people are used to visitors without the region being overrun by them, and street harassment is rare and mild by Italian standards. Eating alone in a trattoria draws no comment. Perugia is the one place with a proper nightlife and a large student population, and it carries the usual city caution around the station area and the lower town after dark rather than anything specific to the region. Petty theft is uncommon outside Perugia and Assisi at peak season. The real risks here are physical and environmental, not criminal. The first is falls: the streets are steep, worn stone, and wet cobbles cause more injuries to visitors here than anything else, so shoes matter more than they might elsewhere. The second is the mountains. The Sibillini are serious terrain with fast weather changes, snow that lies late, unreliable mobile coverage and long response times for rescue; do not go far in without telling someone your route and carrying a warm layer. The third is worth knowing rather than worrying about: central Italy is seismically active and Umbria has had damaging earthquakes in 1997 and 2016. Aftershocks are normal, buildings are now well regulated, and the practical advice is simply to know where the exits are in old accommodation. Public transport between towns is safe but thins out sharply in the evening and on Sundays, and being stranded at a valley station below a hill town at nine at night is the most likely way an Umbrian day goes wrong. Check the last bus before you set out.
Reading On
Umbria rewards a slow week and a car more than almost any region in Italy, and it is the obvious answer for anyone who wants Tuscany without the crowds. The Italy travel guide for women is the parent for the country. Immediately west, the Tuscany travel guide for women covers the neighbouring region and the Siena packing list for women and Florence travel guide for women cover the towns most people pair with this one. South, the Rome travel guide for women covers the capital two hours away, which is how most visitors arrive. For more hill towns and worn stone, the Matera packing list for women goes further south, and the Dolomites travel guide for women covers Italian mountain walking in more detail. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why one thin wool layer handles a fifteen degree swing between a foggy Umbrian morning and a hot afternoon, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
