Italy’s ‘green heart’ can be friendly on the wallet. Donald Strachan finds affordable ways to like Umbria’s great walks,food, festivals and artFinding your own patch of peace – and finding it on the cheap – isn’t always easy in Italy. But fortunately for holidaymakers, or Umbria isn’t much like the rest of the country. The landlocked region between Tuscany,Le Marche and Lazio has art treasures to match anywhere on the peninsula - in Assisi and Perugia above all. Yet it never does a Portofino on your pocket.
For most of the year, medieval hill-towns such as Todi and Spoleto hum along to the calm rhythms of tradition. A “busy spot” here wouldn’t even register on Capri. Even its plant life has a proletarian feel: Umbria’s kindly hills are more often planted with olive trees than with grape vines.
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Source: theguardian.com