This is one of most interesting towns that we have visited. When arriving at the outskirts, the signage bills it as the most beautiful Medieval city in Italy, which seems a bit fanciful, when driving the next kilometre between twentieth century buildings. But then we came alongside the extreme edge of the old town to see the old walls and then the impressive, but low-lying, town on the slope of the hill.

Having arrived around mid-day, we were fortunate to be able to take the last tourist ‘train’, (essentially an tractor with carriages, that looks like a train) around the city before the extended lunchtime break. This is a great way to take in the important sites – enabling you to revisit those sights of interest later - on foot.

The town dates back to the bronze age, when the first settlements existed and before Rome, it was already an important Umbrian town. It has prospered through the centuries and was able to provide 1000 knights for the 1^st Crusade, which was a lot by Medieval standards. In common with neighbouring Umbrian towns, through subsequent centuries, Gubbio was caught up in the tussles for power and control between the important families in the region such as the Gabriellis and the Montefeltros, but at various times was also protected from the worst of the conflicts by the patronage of important bishops – probably  because of its association with several important saints such as Saint Francis (of Assisi) and Saint Ubaldo, whose effigy is carried by one of three teams, representing the mason’s guild against St George (merchants) and St, Anthony (peasants) in a colourful race through the city each year on the 15^th May. In 1631, Gubbio effectively became a papal state until merged into the Kingdom of Italy in 1860.

The city is unspoilt as the stone buildings are almost all medieval and traversed by wide streets, which give it a feeling of confidence and wealth. There are numerous grand churches and palazzos (palaces) and several important artworks of a religious nature to see. Sad to say, you come to realise the almost exclusively biblical paintings are very typical in the whole of Italy in the medieval and renaissance eras and however good they are, yet another painting of the Madonna and Child just washes over you after a while. Even the souvenirs in the tourist shops appear to be of a good crafted quality, rather than the plastic tat that we see elsewhere. Definitely a not to miss destination.