A cultural revolution which has left indelible traces throughout Italy and beyond. For Umbria, the Renaissance was a period of great artistic ferment, a time in which the region's cities were embellished with the works of such great artists as Perugino, Pinturicchio, Luca Signorelli, Benozzo Gozzoli and Filippo Lippi.
Luca Signorelli was the artist responsible for the magnificent pictorial cycle in the Cathedral of Spoleto, city in which this tour of Umbria commences. Built during the Romanesque period, the Cathedral, nevertheless, has a Renaissance feel, thanks to the elegant façade, added to the church in the 16th century. The interiors of the cathedral house the works of Signorelli but also Filippo Lippi's frescoes recounting the Life of the Virgin and a marvellous Madonna and Saints by Pinturicchio. Amongst the works in the nearby Pinacoteca Civica, the Mary Magdalene attributed to Guercino, is more than worthy of admiration.
From Spoleto we head to Montefalco, where to visit the ex Church of San Francesco, now a Museum in which to find all of the town's most important artworks, including Benozzo Gozzoli's frescoes of the Life of St Francis, and a splendid Nativity by Perugino. The Pinacoteca contains a significant number of artworks produced by the Umbrian School, dating from the 14th to 18th centuries. So as to see the last part of the museum, visitors descend in to the crypt, in which a number of archaeological exhibits and sculptures are conserved. Of course, no visit to Montefalco is complete without having first tasted a glass or two of the town's world famous Sagrantino wine.
At Spello, it is the chapel and not the main Church of Santa Maria Maggiore which draws the crowds; eager to admire the Nativity, Jesus disputing with the Doctors, and the four Sybille, by Pinturicchio, the famous artist commissioned by Troilo Baglioni to paint his family chapel.
In Perugia, our tour of the city begins with the National Gallery of Umbria, in the Palazzo dei Priori. The museum boasts an impressive collection of artworks by great Italian artists such as Piero della Francesca, Pinturicchio, Beato Angelico, Benozzo Gozzoli and Perugino. Not far from the Gallery lies the Collegio del Cambio, its halls embellished with Perugino's Triumph of the Four Cardinal Virtues and Allegory of the Three Theological Virtues. Close to the Piazza IV Novembre and the Cathedral lies the entrance to the Pozzo Etrusco, a masterpiece of Etruscan hydraulic engineering. The Church of San Severo is also worthy of visit, so as to admire the Trinity and the Saints, a fresco which bears the mark of both Perugino and Raphael.
Few visitors can claim to have been untouched by the stunning beauty of Orvieto's Cathedral, the imposing gothic façade of which provides the subject for one of Italy's most famous picture postcards. If the exterior leaves tourists spell-bound, the interiors of the Cathedral only increases their amazement. This is where to admire the frescoes initiated by Beato Angelico and completed by Luca Signorelli. Another symbol of Orvieto, again constructed during the Renaissance period, is the Pozzo di San Patrizio, an immense well complete with wide spiral staircases and 72 internal windows, designed by Antonio Sangallo the Younger.
