6-Nights Italy: Tuscany & Umbria

Farm-fresh cuisine. Renaissance cities. Quintessential countryside. No wonder these are Italy’s most iconic regions.

Far below Mount Subasio’s high slopes glints Assisi’s Basilica, where you recently stood before Giotto’s frescoes of St. Francis preaching to the birds. Just downhill is the hermitage where Francis often meditated, subsisting on roots and sleeping in caves. Thankfully, your prospects today are less austere. In fact, a sumptuous home-cooked lunch awaits in nearby Collepino. Bruschetta, grilled meats and veggies, local wine, and olive oil. This is the flavorful fare you’ve grown accustomed to after days of rambling on this walking tour through Tuscany and Umbria’s hills and vineyards. Central Italy’s beauty will stay with you forever—Siena’s seashell-shaped piazza, Pienza’s harmonious Renaissance architecture—but today’s greatest gift is the blessed sense of peace.