The Most Beautiful Places in Umbria
6 places ยท updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful places in Umbria are Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi, Cascata delle Marmore and Piani di Castelluccio. The list covers 6 places. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Umbria is the green, landlocked heart of the Italian peninsula, a region of wooded hills, river valleys and hill towns built on rock and tufa. Etruscans and Romans left their roads and walls here, but its deepest mark comes from the Middle Ages: this is the land of Saint Francis and Saint Benedict, and its towns poured their wealth into churches, bridges and wells that still stand above the valleys.
The Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi, begun soon after the saint's death, is two churches stacked one above the other, its upper church lined with the fresco cycle of Francis's life traditionally given to Giotto. Orvieto Cathedral rises from a cliff of volcanic tuff with a gold mosaic facade, and inside, Luca Signorelli's Last Judgment frescoes fill the Chapel of San Brizio. In the same town the Pozzo di San Patrizio drops deep into the rock, with two spiral ramps that never meet, so mules could go down and come up without crossing.
The Ponte delle Torri at Spoleto carries a medieval aqueduct across a gorge on tall stone arches. Nature is just as dramatic: the Cascata delle Marmore near Terni, created by Roman engineers who diverted the Velino river over a cliff, falls in three leaps, and the high plain of Castelluccio in the Sibillini mountains turns into a patchwork of red, yellow and blue when its lentil fields and wildflowers bloom in early summer.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi | Church building | |
| 2 | Cascata delle Marmore | Waterfall | |
| 3 | Piani di Castelluccio | Protected area | |
| 4 | Orvieto Cathedral | Cathedral | |
| 5 | Pozzo di S. Patrizio | Stepwell | |
| 6 | Ponte delle Torri | Aqueduct |
01 Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi
Basilica di San Francesco
Italy ยท 18 km from Perugia43.075ยฐ N 12.606ยฐ E
Hagai Agmon-Snir ุญฺุงู ุงฺู ูู-ุณููุฑ ืืื ืืืืื-ืฉื ืืจ ยท CC BY-SA 4.0 Seen from the plain below, the Basilica of San Francesco is less a church than a fortress of faith: a long pale wall of arches on the western spur of Assisi, with the Sacro Convento stretched out on its buttresses.
Did you know? The papal altar of the Lower Church was carved in 1230 from a single block of stone brought from Como.
02 Cascata delle Marmore
Italy42.551ยฐ N 12.715ยฐ E
Image by crilaman from Pixabay The Marmore Falls near Terni in Umbria drop 165 metres in three great leaps from the lip of the Rieti plateau into the gorge of the Nera, the highest man-made waterfall in Europe. They are also man-made.
Did you know? The 1545 canal by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger worked for only about fifty years before a new solution was needed.
03 Piani di Castelluccio
Italy42.812ยฐ N 13.209ยฐ E
Image by resolfa from Pixabay High in the Apennines, under the slopes of Monte Vettore, a wide treeless basin opens at about 1,350 metres above sea level.
Did you know? In 1275 the podestร of Norcia granted the use of the high plain to settlers on condition that they live in the hilltop stronghold that became Castelluccio.
04 Orvieto Cathedral
Duomo di Orvieto
Italy42.717ยฐ N 12.113ยฐ E
Image by sferrario1968 from Pixabay Orvieto's cathedral announces itself long before you reach it: the town sits on a sheer plug of volcanic rock above the Umbrian plain, and the church rises from its highest point like a gilded altarpiece set on a pedestal. It was built to house a relic.
Did you know? Many of the faรงade mosaics are not medieval: the originals of 1350โ1390 were replaced in campaigns of 1484, 1713 and 1842.
05 Pozzo di S. Patrizio
Pozzo di San Patrizio
Italy42.723ยฐ N 12.120ยฐ E
Antichitera ยท CC BY-SA 3.0 St Patrick's Well in Orvieto is a shaft cut 54 metres down into the volcanic rock beneath an Umbrian hill town, and what makes it extraordinary is the way down.
Did you know? At the bottom the water level stays constant, fed by a natural spring and kept from rising by an outlet that drains away the excess.
06 Ponte delle Torri
Italy42.733ยฐ N 12.744ยฐ E
Image by faustomanasse from Pixabay A wall of stone some 80 metres high and 230 metres long closes the gorge of the Tessino just below Spoleto, carried on nine tall, slender arches whose piers rise straight from the ravine floor.
Did you know? The bases of the tallest piers measure up to about 10 by 12 metres.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented โ the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful places in Umbria?
- On our list, Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi ranks first, followed by Cascata delle Marmore and Piani di Castelluccio.
- Is the Cascata delle Marmore a natural waterfall?
- No. It was created in 271 BC, when the Romans cut a channel to drain the marshy Velino valley into the Nera river below. With a total drop of about 165 metres, it is one of the tallest man-made waterfalls in the world.
- Why was the Pozzo di San Patrizio built?
- Pope Clement VII ordered the well after taking refuge in Orvieto following the Sack of Rome in 1527, to secure water if the town were besieged. Antonio da Sangallo the Younger designed it with a double helix of ramps, one for descending and one for climbing.
- Why do the plains of Castelluccio bloom in colour?
- The high plain is farmed for lentils, and the crop grows together with poppies, cornflowers and other wildflowers. When they flower together in early summer, the fields turn into bands of red, blue, yellow and white.
- What kinds of places are there to see in Umbria?
- In our collection, the places in Umbria are most often waterfalls (1), nature sanctuaries (1), churches (1) and cathedrals (1).
- How many places are on this list in Umbria?
- The list covers 6 places.