Umbria Biking | Italy’s Green Heart | Self Guided

Your first tour wind past cornflower fields and isolated farmhouses, then into a series of gently rolling hills studded with minuscule towns that you’ll want to stop and visit. Not-to-be-missed is Deruta the pottery town. Highlight is Torgiano with his Museum of Wine, and just outside of town is one of Italy’s most prestigious and modern wineries Lungarotti. For the visitor interested in food and wine, Torgiano is a veritable treasure trove.
Meals included: Breakfast

Today you begin with a nice downhill ride into the broad Upper Tiber Valley, followed by a short climb up to Assisi, hometown of Saint Francis, perched on an outcrop overlooking the valley, gleaming soft pink against the dark-green backdrop of wild Mount Subasio. You’ll want to explore the city’s revered and very beautiful churches, its romantic castle and impossibly narrow streets. Visit Saint Mary of the Angels, one of the largest Christian basilicas in Umbria
Then continue and visit Spello, the hamlet Bevagna and finally arrive to Montefalco, quintessential Umbrian delicacy: the medieval hilltown. Extremely tiny, it occupies a hilltop placed so strategically that majestic views are available at the end of every street.
Meals included: Breakfast

Along the way, you breeze past a few isolated rural churches and through a couple of towns too small to even make it onto the map. The first big church is Madonna delle stelle after 7 km form departure. Today is very gentle hills and part of flat terrain. Highlight is the visit of Spoleto, within its wooded setting, is the loveliest of the Umbrian hill towns. Its urbane atmosphere is enhanced by its superb monuments and by the Festival dei due Mondi, Europe’s leading arts festival held in june and july. Come back in time for a wine tasting in Montefalco, the area is famous for the Sagrantino Wine
Meals included: Breakfast

Back roads are the main roads today, as you wend your way over hill and dale, past the tail end of mountain streams, silent forests and wild mushroom stands. You’ll see fewer people today, hear fewer 20th-century sounds and see fewer modern sights than any other day. At the end of this unique excursion you’ll take the customary uphill incline leading into Todi, whose proximity is heralded by the wonderful Santa Maria della Consolazione, a magnificent Renaissance church set amidst shrubs and treetops on the outskirts of town. Todi still has almost all of its medieval walls, and its pristine charm has made it a favourite country home of wealthy Romans and artists, as well as a host of artisans who have enlivened its streets with their shops.
Meals included: Breakfast

Yet another – perhaps the most glorious – church awaits you at the end of this day, your reward for mastering some pretty steep inclines. Along the way you’ll pass several ruined castles which provide a perfect backdrop for a picnic, perhaps based on local salamis, cheeses and breads purchased in the morning.
By late afternoon you’ll see Orvieto, looming ahead on its strange plateau, crowned by the cathedral of Santa Maria, considered by one and all to be among the very finest churches in all of Europe.
Meals included: Breakfast

Optional bike tour to the ghost town of Bagnoregio: striking position a top a plateau of friable volcanic tuff overlooking the Tiber valley. Distance 44 km/27,5 miles. Arrivederci
Meals included: Breakfast