Deruta travel itineraries

The wine and pottery route

Starting out from Perugia, a city very rich in art and history, take the highway E 45 to exit at Torgiano. This small town is famous for its Museum of Wine and for its wine-making industry.
Descending among the luxurious hills of Torgiano, you'll arrive at Deruta with its traditional pottery industry which goes back a thousand years. At Deruta it's possibile to visit a considerable number of pottery shops and the Regional Museum of Ceramics.

From Assisi to Perugia – The Charm of Sublime

Assisi is the shrine of Umbria’s artand spirituality: birthplace ofSaint Francis and Saint Clare, itsterritory is still landmarked by their livingmemories. In our journey, we will alsoexperience the ancient Umbrian traditionsof gastronomy and handicraft.

The Basilicas of Saint Claire and Saint Francis. Our trip starts from the Basilica di SantaChiara. In one of the chapels, there is thecross originally put in the church of SanDamiano, which, according to the tradition,spoke to Saint Francis in 1205, invitinghim to “repair God’s home”. The majestic Basilica di San Francesco,started in 1228, two years after the Saint’sdeath, the day after Pope Gregory IXproclaimed him Saint, is actually madeup of two basilicas, one upon the other.The lower and most ancient one (BasilicaInferiore) is not simply a vault, but rathera superb resting place for Saint Francis’sbody. The Upper Basilica is famous for itsfrescoes, with stories from the Old andNew Testament, by Cimabue, and fromthe life of Saint Francis, by Giotto. The frescoes draw a parallel betweenChrist’s and Saint Francis’s lives. Cimabueexecuted the paintings of the transept andthe apse. His works are one of the firstattempts to free figurative art from therigidity of Byzantine art, later fulfilled byhis pupil Giotto.Giotto was able to bring the divine nearerto the human, inserting the figures into arealistic space, where the characters movelike Middle Ages men did into their cities:Francis is represented above all as a man,not only as a saint.+

Franciscan Places outside the walls. The Eremo delle Carceri can be reached both on foot (the trip is about 3 miles long)and by car, in about 20 minutes (via delleFonti del Moiano, Largo Properzio, viaUmberto I, via Santuario delle Carceri). Itwas originally a natural cave, where SaintFrancis dwelled between 1205 and 1206.Today, it is enclosed in a monastery, builtby Saint Bernardino of Siena in 1400, andcompletely surrounded by the woods ofMount Subasio. In 15 minutes, we reach the church of San Damiano (towards via Santuariodelle Carceri, viale Giovanni XXIII, viaUmberto I, via Valentin Muller, localitàSan Rufino Campagna), where Francisfirst heard God’s voice and, accordingto the tradition, wrote his Cantico delleCreature.Few more than a mile from San Damiano,the “Sacro Tugurio” (“Holy Shack”)in Rivotorto (località San RufinoCampagna, via Frate Fuoco, via SorellaLuna, via Francesca, via della Regola) wasFrancis’s first shelter, and is now containedinto a XIX century’s sanctuary.Our last stop is the Basilica of SantaMaria degli Angeli (via Francesca, vialePatrono d’Italia, via Los Angeles), builtin XVI and XVII century to preserve thePorziuncola, the Church which Francisrestored and which became his favouriteplace for prayer and retirement. Here hepassed on in 1226. +

Montelabate, Torgiano and Deruta. The Abbey of Montelabate, also knownas Santa Maria di Valdiponte (viaGiuseppe Emili, SS75, Bastia Umbra,Collestrada, SS33bis verso Ravenna/Ancona, Lidarno, Ponte Felcino, Bosco,Ponte Pattoli, Casa del Diavolo, stradadel Piccione, strada Montelabate), waserected in the IX or X century, in a severeRomanesque-Gothic style. It is one of themost important sacred building in Umbria. The journey from Montelabate to Torgianolasts about 30 minutes (strada del Piccione SP 246, Casa del Diavolo, stradaTiberina Nord, Bosco, SS 3 bis, Collestrada,il Sardo, SP 403 Torgiano – San Martinoin Campo). This small but lovely town isbuilt upon a hill, extraordinary rich inolive groves and vineyards. Wine and oliveoil are still its main produces and its mostjealously guarded heritages. Deruta, 6miles from Torgiano (SP403 verso viaMario Angeloni, E45 verso Casaccia,Pontenuovo, Deruta), hosts more than 200factories and workshops, specialized inthe production of majolica. The traditiondates back to the Middle Ages and is documentedin a museum (Museo Regionaledella Ceramica) and a library. A 12 miles’trip towards North (E45 towards PonteNuovo) brings us to Perugia.+