Magnificent Umbria WHAT’S INCLUDED
Departing on March 24th 2009
Duration 5 days 4 nights
Flights from either Stansted or Heathrow (T.B.A.)
Coach travel throughout in Italy
English speaking guide throughout
2 nights in Perugia/Torgiano
2 night in Spoleto @ 4 star Hotel dei Duchi
Four breakfasts, lunches & dinner
PROVISIONAL ITINERARYDay 1 Our flight from the UK will be met by an Alba Travel representative who will accompany us by coach to Umbria. We will enjoy a light lunch in Orvieto with some excellent local white wine, after which we start the itinerary with a half day guided tour of Orvieto and Todi. Located high on a volcanic plug of rock, Orvieto was one of the twelve-strong federation of Etruscan cities. These days  it’s an attractive town, despite the dark volcanic tufa stone with which it is largely constructed, and it has an undeniably superb setting. The main attraction however is the Duomo, one of the greatest Gothic buildings in Italy – described by Burckhardt as "the greatest and richest polychrome monument in the world" the facade is breathtaking: a riot of columns, spires, bas-reliefs, sculptures, colossal doorways, and all with an almost overpowering use of colour. Inside the highlight is Signorelli’s fresco cycle, The Last Judgement, in a chapel at the end of the south nave. Todi is one of Umbria’s best-known & stunning hill-towns and the Piazza del Popolo is widely held to be the most perfect medieval piazza in Italy, which is why most people visit this town. Early this evening we visit Monte Castello di Vibio’s 'smallest theatre in the world' where a presentation will be given whilst you refresh yourselves with some prosecco sparkling wine. The most prestigious building in the small town of Monte Castello di Vibio is undoubtedly the Teatro della Concordia,  started in 1808 by some local families while the town was under Napoleonic occupation. Checking into your hotel in either Torgiano/Perugia, which will be your base for 2 nights, you will receive a bottle of local wine per room, compliments of Simply Groups, before we take dinner at the hotel.
Day 2 After breakfast we visit Deruta ceramics, Italy's most renowned centre forceramics and majolica production where there will be a factory visit with a guided presentation. The town of Deruta is almost entirely devoted to ceramics – some pieces are so big you need a trailer to transport them, and some are tiny, but most pieces are simply beautiful – hand-made, hand-painted, and, by common consent, Italy’s finest. From here it is on to Madonna dei Bagni a very curious church and certainly worth a look. Its walls are covered with hundreds of votive tiles left  by pilgrims over three hundred years, giving occasional wacky insights into the pecularities of religious belief. The most amusing are those offered as gratitude for miraculous escapes – a fall from a cow, or a bite from a donkey. We will take lunch in Torgiano at the Ristorante Siro/Al Grappolo D’Oro. After lunch we travel to Torgiano for a wine tasting and Wine Museum visit. The remainder of the afternoon will be spent in Perugia. We will enjoy a guided visit of the Baci Perugina Baci factory and museum in the San Sisto suburb of Perugia. The "Baci" brand of chocolate is a global best-seller and we shall see how it, and many other types of chocolate, are produced and packaged. The message throughout is always "help yourself". Perugia is Umbria’s provincial capital and it’s centre is still characteristically medieval. Notable sights in the centre are the Piazza IV Novembre in which there is the Fontana Maggiore, as well as the enormous Palazzo dei Priori, often described as one of the greatest public palaces in Italy. A guided visit to the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria is included which has one of the finest and largest collections of medieval and Renaissance paintings. Tonight, we will be the guests of the region of Umbria, who will organise a tasting of traditional Umbrian foods. Day 3 After breakfast you check out and head up the Valnerina, or Valley of the River Nera. This is the most beautiful part of Umbria, and it encompasses the whole of the eastern part of the region. It is an area of high mountains, steep wooded valleys, upland villages and even wolves that still roam the summit ridges, a genuine forgotten corner of Italy. We visit the , an extraordinary prairie surrounded by bare whaleback mountains and stretching uninterrupted with trees, hedges and other flora for mile upon mile. It is much photographed, especially in Spring whe n it is ablaze with poppies and the film director Zeffirelli even used it as one of his backdrops. The desperately isolated village of Castelluccio can be seen in the distance, at around 1400m, if we have time we will make a refreshment stop here. Lunch is included in Norcia, which will be a delicious selection of the local cured meats and mountain cheeses. Walled Norcia is a very pleasant mountain retreat noted as the birthplace of St Benedict and also as Italy’s top producer of salami. There will be a little free time after lunch so that you can wander around the shops of Norcia, an attraction in themselves. If time permits, we shall include a visit to the Cascate delle Marmore, or Marmore waterfall, that is the highest in Europe at 165 metres. We will check into our 2nd hotel of the tour, the 4 star Hotel dei Duchi in central Spoleto, your base for 2 nights. Dinner is included at the hotel this evening.
Day 4 After breakfast we take you on a guided visit of the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi. Assisi is well-known largely thanks to St Francis, Italy’s premier saint and founder of the Franciscan order, the world’s biggest order. The Basilica of St Francis is undoubtedly one of the greatest monuments of Italian art of the 13th and 14th centuries. But there’s certainly more to Assisi: the Oratorio dei Pellegrini, a 15th century hospice for pilgrims (free admission); the Temple of Minerva, a perfectly preserved classical facade from the 1st century; the 13th century Duomo with a lovely three-tiered Umbrian facade and much more. The Basilica of St Francis is simply Umbria’s single greatest glory – it has one of the most overwhelming collections of art, outside a gallery, anywhere in the world. It is split into two parts, the Upper Church and the Lower Church and people usually start with Giotto in the Upper Church, a fabulous airy vehicle for showing off his dazzling fescoes on the life of St Francis. The low-lit vaults of the Lower Church were designed to create a mood of calm and meditative introspection, an effect added to by the brown-robed monks and ban on photography (note!). Frescoes cover almost every available space and span a century of continuous artistic development by Cavallini, Cimabue, Martini and Lorenzetti (the latter two from the best of the Sienese School). St Francis himself is buried here in the crypt. A light lunch is included in Assisi before we spend part of this afternoon on the Ferrovia Centrale Umbra. This is the central Umbrian regional train  service which goes through wonderful scenery and sleepy towns and villages. It follows the the route of the Tiber Valley, a great way to see central Umbria from another perspective. We will travel from Perugia to Todi and return, 45 minutes each way. The rest of the afternoon will be spent on a guided walking tour of Spoleto. Spoleto is an intimate medieval city, many of its streets are narrow and it is not uncommon for many buildings’ magnificent facades to be visible on one street level, yet they back on to a lower or higher street level – this is the case with the Municipal Offices, the Palazzo Rosari-Spada and the Palazzo della Signoria. The Fortress (visible for miles around) and the Tower Bridge are the focal points of this charming city. A typical Umbrian Farewell Dinner with drinks and music is included this evening as a finale to this tour before returning to our Spoleto hotel.
Day Five You will check out of the hotel  after breakfast and travel north where the morning will be spent in Marsciano at a Farmers Market, Italian style! The "Marsciano Nostrano" is held every Saturday morning from 8am to 1pm in the old tobacco warehouse in Via Larga. A wide range of local produce is on display from the farmers of the Marsciano district, from fresh fruit to olive oil, from cheese to cured meats – a great noisy bustling, classically Italian, market. Lunch will be at your leisure today (not included) before we return to Rome for our return flight to the UK, arriving back later this evening.
PRICE & SUPPLEMENTS
Group organisers price from £399.00pp(*)
This represents a discount of 40% on the average package price
Partner’s price from £449.00pp Prices based on twin/double share
Single supplement £49.00pp (4 nights limited availability)
Deposit £120.00pp (non-refundable)
Balance due in full by the 30.01.09
Insurance if required is available at £26.00pp (no upper age limit but subject to medical screening)
(*) Limited to one organiser price per booking
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