Perugia

A town of Gothic palaces and jazz cafes, where ancient alleys of stone drop precipitously off a 19th-century shopping promenade, Perugia is a capital city disguised as a medieval hill town. It is an intensely colorful place with some of the most authentic medieval streets in all of Europe.

This Umbrian capital is also one of Italy's greatest art cities. The artist Perugino was born just to the south of the lake in Citta' della Pieve and made these bluish-green landscapes his own. In fact, Perugia produced and trained some of Umbria's finest artists, including Gentile da Fabriano and Perugino's proteges: Pinturicchio, Lo Spagna, and Raphael.

The biggest name in local industry is Perugina, purveyor of I's finest chocolates. Perugia stages a daily passeggiata (stroll) down Corso Vannucci and plays host to one of Europe's most celebrated jazz festivals every summer.