Visit almost any Italian town and you will find a tradition as old as the Roman empire. Find a spot at the coffee bar, have your cappuccino and cornetto, and peek into this window on everyday Italian life -- Market Day.

Everyone who's spent any time in Umbria knows Deruta for ceramics — it's the name that comes up in every guidebook, and it earns the reputation. What fewer visitors know is that Gubbio, less than an hour from the villas, has its own ceramic tradition, and is a much quieter place to explore. Best time to go: Late May, for one weekend in particular. Buongiorno Ceramica! is a two-day event held every year across sixty ceramic towns in Italy, and several of them are right here in

Fewer of our guests make it up to Città di Castello than we'd like, which is a shame, because it's the closest of Umbria's craft towns to Altabella and holds two of the more unusual stories in the region. Neither gets much attention outside Umbria, and both are still working businesses rather than preserved-for-visitors museum pieces. Best time to go: Any season works — this is a short trip from the valley, so it's easy to slot in on a quieter day regardless of when you're st

Guests planning a trip to this part of Italy nearly always ask us the same question at some point: should they build in a day for Florence, or one for Rome? Our answer is often a third option. Perugia gives you the history and the food without the queues, and after enough years of sending people there instead, we've stopped treating it as the consolation choice. Best time to go: Mid-to-late November, when Eurochocolate takes over the historic centre. In 2026 the festival runs