Holiday apartment in Foligno: culture, nature and Umbrian experiences

Foligno is a good choice for you if culture, vibrant traditions and nature observation are to be part of a varied trip. When planning a holiday apartment in Foligno, you can focus on the city’s history, regional cuisine, events and discoveries in Colfiorito.

Art, history and special museums

A cultural focal point is the museum complex of Palazzo Trinci. It comprises the Pinacoteca, the Museo Archeologico, the Museo dell’Istituzione Comunale and the Museo Multimediale dei Tornei, delle Giostre e dei Giochi. The Museo Archeologico in Palazzo Trinci displays finds dating from the 7th or 6th century BC to the 3rd century AD. Palazzo Trinci itself is regarded as one of the most important late Gothic secular buildings in central Italy.

The Museo della Stampa in the former Palazzo Orfini also offers a special insight into the city’s history. It preserves evidence of paper production and publishing in Foligno from the 15th century to the present day. This includes a printed page from Dante’s Commedia dating from 1472, representing the eleventh canto of the Paradiso. At the Museo Capitolare Diocesano, you can expect to see around 40 works, including two busts from the workshop of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The museum visit also includes the recently restored Cripta di San Feliciano.

Further historical insights are offered by the archaeological-industrial textile park of Rasiglia. It preserves the work steps and elements required for traditional textile production – from shearing the sheep to the finished product. At the same time, it documents the transition from handlooms through hydraulic looms to the mechanical Jacquard loom.

Festivals, cuisine and the cityscape

The Giostra della Quintana is a historical re-enactment of a 17th-century jousting tournament, established in 1946. In it, Foligno’s ten city districts compete against one another at the Campo de li Giochi. During the Giostra, the taverns of the ten districts in the historic centre serve traditional Umbrian dishes and local wines. The I Primi d’Italia festival complements this culinary side with tastings, cookery classes, culinary demonstrations and a food market.

The cityscape is also helpful for orienting yourself in Foligno: the present-day urban area has an elliptical, characteristically oval shape. Its focal point is Piazza della Repubblica, where the cathedral and the duomo face each other. An urban walking route begins at the railway station and leads through the Porta Romana into the historic centre. This makes it easy to combine the city’s history and the walking experience in your mind, without restricting your accommodation planning to a single type of trip.

Nature, trails and spiritual history

Colfiorito combines an interest in nature and archaeology. The Palude di Colfiorito is a wetland where water remains throughout the year; it is protected as a regional park, Ramsar site and European Special Area of Conservation (SAC). In the Parco Regionale di Colfiorito, you can hike and go mountain biking on numerous trails. The park is also suitable for birdwatching and nature photography. The Museo Archeologico di Colfiorito presents finds relating to the pre-Roman culture of the Plestini, an Umbrian people who settled in pre-Roman times on the karst plateaus of the Apennine upland of Colfiorito. The archaeological exhibition traces the history of the Plestini from their origins to Romanisation, using materials from sanctuaries, tombs, settlements and towns.

Another destination is the Abbazia di Santa Croce in Sassovivo. It can be visited daily from approximately 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and includes a church with fragments of 15th-century frescoes, the Cripta di San Marone, the Loggia del Paradiso and a Romanesque cloister. For travellers interested in the history of pilgrimage, the Via Lauretana provides an additional historical connection: since the end of the 16th century, with its variants and branch routes, it has been the most important pilgrimage route to the Santa Casa of Loreto. Depending on whether you wish to focus on museums, festival culture, walks, nature observation or spiritual history, you can consider your holiday apartment or holiday house in Foligno accordingly as the starting point for planning your personal trip.

Discover more places

For further travel planning, you can also visit Spoleto, Civitella d'Arna, Magione, Colfiorito, Fratta Todina, Branca, San Martino In Colle and Bosco.

For the higher-level travel overview: Perugia.