UmbriaFrom ancient roots to new directions
Hotels Umbria
Restaurants Typical Products Services Leisure Time
From ancient roots to new directions
Restaurants Typical Products Services Leisure Time
Umbrias three thousand years of history have seen it play a highly active role;
its cultural backdrop is of the strongest weave. In the Middle Ages the
Benedictine monasteries had become the cornerstones of the conservation of
the ancient classical culture and of the new Christian one, philosophical and
mystical. These were centres for the arts, and for technical and scientific
investigations in the fields of medicine, science and agriculture.
Perugia, for example, was a lively cultural centre first in the mediaeval period,
and later during the Renaissance, just as it is today. Its university, founded at
the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th centuries, is one of the
oldest in Europe. Orvieto was one of the pope's official residences for many
years, attracting artistic and literary geniuses. Culturally as weil as politically it
was quite self-reliant. This was then the fertile ground from which Umbrian
culture sprung and continued to flourish across the centuries, supported by its
commitment to ancient cultural institutions and to new, bold investments in
humanism as weil as science and experiment. Its university, its schools of art,
and its music courses are today famous not only throughout the land, but also
across Europe, drawing thousands of students each year.
Moreover, cultural initiatives of the highest standards have sprung up - and
are still springing up - everywhere, bringing together many people from all
over the world. The best-known events are the Two Worlds Festival in
Spoleto, the Umbrian Festival of Sacred Music and Umbria Jazz. Alongside
these initiatives, the most authentic expressions of the region's old popular
culture have been restored or given new life: popular celebrations such as the
Candle Race and the Crossbow Contest in Gubbio, May Day in Assisi, the
Quintain Joust at Foligno, the Ring Race at Narni or the historical procession
on Corpus Christi day in Orvieto. Once more Umbria is boldly expressing
its ancient and modern spirit, preserving its traditions and a many-facetted
image of a highly composite reality.
Umbria is a place with a great tradition for hospitality and offers a large
variety of accommodation possibilities: hotels, farm holiday, farmhouse,
residence self-catering accommodation, b&b, rooms for rent, holiday homes, camp
sites and tourist villages: there remains only to choose and undertake an
interesting journey amidst myth and history. Umbria may also be discovered at
any time of the year.
Umbria
