Gubbio

Gubbio climbs the slopes of Monte Ingino in stern grey stone, a medieval city so complete that its piazza hangs on a terrace above the roofs. Here stand the sixty-metre Palazzo dei Consoli and the bronze Eugubine Tables, while each May the run of the Ceri sets the whole town aflame with devotion and adrenaline.

Why visit

Few Italian towns deliver such an unbroken medieval impression. Gubbio was founded by the Umbrians as Ikuvium at the foot of Monte Ingino, became a Roman municipality in 90 BC, and rebuilt itself in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries into a commune of towers, porticoes, and steep alleys that later centuries left essentially intact. The centrepiece is Piazza Grande, a suspended terrace overlooking the countryside, flanked by the imposing Palazzo dei Consoli — over sixty metres tall — whose civic museum guards the Eugubine Tables, seven bronze tablets in the Umbrian language from the third to first centuries BC describing sacred rites, among the most important documents of ancient Italy. Add Federico da Montefeltro’s Renaissance Ducal Palace with its replica studiolo, a Roman theatre from the first centuries of our era, a cable car rising in open cages to the Basilica of Sant’Ubaldo, and the Festa dei Ceri held every 15 May — one of Italy’s oldest folk festivals, in which towering wooden candles are run up the mountain — and Gubbio becomes an essential Umbrian destination rather than an optional one. The surrounding Bottaccione gorge even preserves evidence of the asteroid impact that ended the age of dinosaurs.

Character and history

Gubbio’s story is unusually layered. The Umbrian settlement left its voice in the Eugubine Tables, found by a peasant woman near the Roman theatre in 1444 and purchased by the commune in 1456; the Roman Iguvium added the theatre and urban streets. The medieval commune, allied and at war with Perugia, built the civic monuments visitors admire now: the Palazzo dei Consoli between 1332 and 1338 with its great Campanone bell, the Palazzo del Podestà balancing on a single central octagonal pillar, and the Palazzo del Bargello with its fountain where circling three times earns the playful “licence of the mad.” In 1384 the city fell to the Montefeltro, and Federico — likely born here in 1422 — commissioned the Ducal Palace, the only Renaissance building in an otherwise medieval townscape, its studiolo crafted by Giuliano da Maiano and Francesco di Giorgio before the original furnishings travelled to New York’s Metropolitan Museum. Gubbio’s spiritual identity is inseparable from Sant’Ubaldo, its twelfth-century bishop, whose relics and the three Ceri rest in the basilica on Monte Ingino, reached by a winding road, by footpath, or by the aerial cable car that lifts riders from the town centre in a few minutes.

What to see

Start on the suspended stage of Piazza Grande (Gubbio), framed by the Civic Museum of Palazzo dei Consoli — home of the Eugubine Tables, the picture gallery, and archaeological collections — and the gravity-defying Palazzo del Podestà (Palazzo Pretorio). Downhill in the artisans’ quarter, the Palazzo del Bargello guards the Fountain of the Mad, and a short walk brings you to the Ducal Palace of Gubbio, the state museum of Montefeltro’s court with its studiolo replica and multimedia displays.

Religious Gubbio centres on the Gubbio Cathedral beside the piazza, the Gubbio Diocesan Museum in its vicinity, and the parish interiors of the Church of Santa Maria Nuova (Gubbio), the Church of Santa Maria dei Laici, and the Church of the Santissima Trinità (Gubbio). Ascend by the Colle Eletto Cable Car (Colle Einaudi) to the Basilica of Sant’Ubaldo, where the patron’s urn and the Ceri are kept.

Below town, the first-century Roman Theatre, Antiquarium and Archaeological Trail of Gubbio displays a polychrome Scilla mosaic, with the Guastuglia archaeological area nearby. Craft and memory live on at the MUAM – Museum of Arts and Crafts, the multimedia I Ceri – Enjoy&Share experience, and the sober Mausoleum of the 40 Martyrs commemorating victims of the Nazi reprisal of 1944. Nature frames it all: the Bottaccione Gorge with its Gola del Bottaccione Multimedia Lab – Archive of the Earth, and the terraces of Ranghiasci Park beneath the cathedral.

How to experience

Gubbio rewards the vertical approach. Enter the old town through its lower gates and climb steadily through the quarters to Piazza Grande, pausing at the Bargello fountain to earn the traditional “matto” certificate by circling it three times. Give the Consoli museum a slow hour for the Tables, then cross to the Ducal Palace to feel Montefeltro’s court. Time your visit for 15 May if you can: the Festa dei Ceri, run since tradition says 1165, sees three towering wooden candles — saints’ banners on heavy octagonal structures — carried at a run up Monte Ingino by teams in white-and-red, an atmosphere no description fully prepares you for. Outside festival days, ride the cable car to the basilica for the finest view over the rooftops, walk the medieval aqueduct path along the hillside, and explore the Bottaccione gorge, where geologists identified the clay layer marking the dinosaur-killing asteroid impact. At Christmas, the lights of the “largest Christmas tree in the world” trace the mountain above the town.

Practical planning

Gubbio lies in the north-east of Umbria, reached most conveniently by car from Perugia or the A14 corridor; buses and rail links run via Fossato di Vico and Perugia. The town is steep — cobbled ramps and stepped alleys — so wear sturdy shoes and expect a workout between monuments; the cable car spares the final climb to the basilica. Museums observe weekly closing days and seasonal timetables, and the funivia does not run continuously all year, so verify arrangements close to your travel date. May combines the Ceri with mild walking weather; September and October give clear views from Monte Ingino. Winter visits trade the festivals for atmospheric mists and the mountain-side illuminations. Parking sits outside the walls at the valley entrances.

Nearby places

The northern Umbrian circuit pairs Gubbio with the Tiber valley city of /destination/citta-di-castello/ and the lake country of /destination/lake-trasimeno/, /destination/panicale/, /destination/castiglione-del-lago/, and /destination/passignano-sul-trasimeno/. To the south lie /destination/perugia/, /destination/assisi/, /destination/spello/, /destination/bevagna/, /destination/montefalco/, and /destination/foligno/, with /destination/todi/, /destination/spoleto/, and the Apennine town of /destination/norcia/ completing a grand tour.