Umbria

Long dismissed as Tuscany’s “gentler sister”, Umbria has recently emerged from the shadow of its more famous western neighbor. Forming an expanse of gentle pastoral countryside and high mountain wilderness, the picturesque region has been dubbed the “Green Heart Of Italy”. Umbria is also known for the beauty and profusion of its medieval hill-towns. The region is named for the Umbri tribe, who settled in the region in the 6th century BC. Their language was Umbrian, a relative of Latin. The modern region of Umbria, however, is essentially a different region of Italy than that bearing the same name in Roman times (see Roman Umbria), which extended through most of what is now the northern Marche, to Ravenna, but excluded the west bank of the Tiber — and thus for example Perugia- which was in Etrucia and the area around Norcia, which was in the Sabine territory.