Overview
Foligno, located in the centre of Umbria and Italy, is also traditionally referred to as the Centre of the World. A hub of important road and rail communication routes, the town is crossed by the Topino river. The territory is vast and features small villages scattered on the surrounding hills and on the overlooking plain.
Visitors who come to Foligno can enjoy the warm hospitality of its inhabitants, the excellent cuisine, the typical atmosphere of the alleys leading into large squares, the historical and architectural monuments, and the numerous noble palaces dotting its historical centre, so much so that Foligno is also known as the “City of Palaces”. In June and September, visitors can watch the Giostra della Quintana, an equestrian challenge between the city’s districts competing for the palio, and the Historical Procession in sumptuous 17th-century clothing.
Speciality food
Foligno retains much of its culinary traditions, following the seasonal cycles and the agricultural production.
The town offers pleasant and tasty occasions to the lovers of Local Cusine thanks to its simple, excellent products, often hard to find elsewhere. Foligno’s agricultural produce retains its exquisite authenticity, such as Cave beans, ‘Gobbi’ (cardoons), heart tomatoes and the particular fragrance and scent of local extra virgin olive oil obtained from the moraiolo variety typical of this area.
Multi-flower honey is also produced here from the nectar of several botanical species: sunflower, chestnut, acacia, etc.
In the Colfiorito plateau, agriculture has survived thanks to the specialisation of its products, such as the red potato, dairy products, typical cereals such as spelt and original legumes like lentils and chickling peas.
Foligno’s signature dishes are: Strangozzi with truffle, Tagliatelle and gnocchi with mutton, Pigeon Foligno style, Trout from Menotre in porchetta, Cheese pizza with salami, Lentils and red potatoes from Colfiorito.
A delight for the palate and a local speciality is the Rocciata, a typical pastry from Foligno, consisting of a thin sheet of dough made from wheat flour that envelops a mixture of walnuts, sugar, olive oil and apples, to which other ingredients such as alkermes, cocoa, sultanas, dried figs, cinnamon and pine nuts can be added according to the confectioners’ taste or imagination.
Main sights
Coming from the railway station or arriving from the south, Foligno welcomes visitors with the Porta Romana, one of its four gates.
Entering the town from Foligno’s main street (Corso Cavour), the heart of commercial and social life, we arrive at the “Piazza Grande”, or Piazza della Repubblica, where the main buildings and monuments are located: the cathedral of San Feliciano (patron saint of Foligno), Palazzo Trinci, home to the city museum and containing an important cycle of frescoes attributed to Gentile da Fabriano and his collaborators; the Palazzo del Podestà, Palazzo Orfini, seat of the Foligno printing house where, in collaboration with the German master printer Johannes Numeister, the first edition of the Divine Comedy was printed, and today home to the Museum of Printing. The series concludes with the imposing Palazzo Comunale dominated by its tower rebuilt after its ruinous collapse in the 1997 earthquake.
Continuing along the main streets of the centre, one can admire: the Oratorio del Crocifisso with the adjacent Auditorium San Domenico and Palazzo Candiotti, seat of the Ente Giostra Quintana and the new immersive museum of the Quintana, until arriving at Piazza San Domenico and the Church of Santa Maria Infraportas, the oldest in town.
Yet another jewel is the Oratorio della Nunziatella, with its fresco by Pietro Vannucci known as Perugino.
Contemporary art lovers can admire the “Cosmic Magnet”, a gigantic sculpture measuring 24 m in length, 9 in width and almost 4 in height. The work was made by Gino De Dominicis and is located inside the former Church of the Holy Trinity. In addition, the CIAC-Centre for Contemporary Art offers some very interesting exhibitions.
The Foligno area and its places of interest continue among villages and hamlets nestled in the hills and the Apennine ridge.
The protected natural area of the Colfiorito Park is characterised by the presence of a marsh, a perfect resting place for various species of migratory and sedentary birds. This location is home to the Nature Park with an ornithological exhibition and an archaeological museum (MAC) displaying artefacts from the ancient Umbrian people and the Plestine civilisation.
The hilly area is covered by the olive groves that run from Assisi to Spoleto and has been recognised as an agricultural heritage of world importance by the FAO. On the path that winds through the olive belt, we find the village of Pale, largely enclosed within the castle. In the centre is the parish church of San Biagio, patron saint of wool carders and protector of wool workers. Inside the village we can find the Abbadessa Caves, discovered in the 18th century.
The rock that supports the village of Pale descends towards the valley of the Altolina and the Menotre river, with its suggestive waterfalls. Climbing up the ridge from the village, we reach the Hermitage of Santa Maria Giacobbe with frescoes from the 14th and 15th centuries.
How could one fail to visit the village of Rasiglia, a village traversed by the waters flowing from the Capovena spring, making it a unique and fascinating destination for countless tourists.
Finally, let’s not forget the imposing Sassovivo Abbey, perched on the slopes of Monte Aguzzo. Its mass of limestone stands out against the dark holm oak forest that covers the slopes of the surrounding mountains. It is one of the oldest testimonies of the Benedictine presence in the Umbrian Valley.
