Rome of course a bit below the centre of Italy on the western coast of the boot. It sits in the region of Lazio.

Umbria is just north of Lazio, and lies in the centre of Italy. And I MEAN "the centre". it doesn't have a coastline. Lazio continues up the Tyrrhenian coast until it meets Toscana (Tuscany), meaning that those two regions border Umbria on the south west and west as well. Le Marche sits to the east, separating Umbria from the Adriatic.

Thus, much of Umbria lies in the Apennine Mountains, which run through the centre of the peninsula. Unfortunately, it is therefore prone to a lot of volcanic activity.

Only a day or two after we passed through, the region was hit by some incredibly bad earthquakes which flattened some of the hilltop towns that had stood for centuries. The region already has a problem with young people moving out to find work; the earthquake destruction did not help.

Umbria consists of only two regions:
[*] Perugia (PG), which used to be the only one in the region and still makes up the overwhelming bulk of it. Assisi and Gubbio will be found here; and
[*] Terni (TR), which was founded in 1927 and consists of a small arc to the south west of the region. It includes the hilltop town of Orvieto.

We spent little time in Umbria on the 2016 trip, and no discernible time (off the train) on the 2019 one.

At the start of our 2016 trip we took the coach from Roma toward our first overnight stay in Toscana. In doing so we skirted the western edge of Umbria and made a stop in Orvieto for lunch.

After a week in Toscana and the north we headed south again down the east coast, this time grazing the eastern side of Umbria and whistle-stopping in a handful of its towns. Specifically, it consisted of an afternoon in the town of Gubbio (which frankly everyone was too hot and tired to appreciate properly by that point), followed by an overnight stay at the City Hotel & Suites in a town called Foligno.

The hotel was nicer than the name suggests. It's probably not that memorable; outside of this comment I may not remember it in a few years' time but it was comfortable and functional and had a decent breakfast service. The evening meal was pleasant enough though the "dining room" had more the atmosphere of a factory cafeteria than a restaurant, and we could only get soft drinks from the vending machine in reception. The machine did not accept notes, so I had to go back upstairs and get the coins out of my trusty photographer's vest. I had forgotten about that until I started to write this commentary.

I did not take a single photo in Foligno, much to my regret. It wasn't an exceptionally memorable place, though it's a lovely town of around 57,000 people... but even if I were to go back there, I will never again be able to photograph what it was like in the hot August of 2016. That time is gone, never to return.

Of course it's easy to say that while writing commentary in a comfortable, air conditioned study 6 years after the event, and not remembering - REALLY remembering - just how dog-tired everyone was one week and probably 3 figures worth of walking into a very "on the go" package tour.

After we left Foligno we doubled back north to Assisi, to spend the morning in the town that was once home to St Francis.

We did not get to the capital Perugia at all, nor many other places in Umbria for it was time to head south on the Naples leg of the tour. The map in this gallery shows our routes.

(Or will do when I load it.)

The region's main advantage is its food and wine industries; it's particularly notable for the quality of its truffles. It's sometimes referred to as Italy's "green heart".