The best master of Italy

As we celebrate the quincentenary of Perugino, the artist who set the stage for the Renaissance, Mary Miers explores the beauty of the region in which he lived and worked

- Mary Miers

IN the Umbrian capital of Perugia, smart-suited accountants emerge from Gothic doorways. Young executives drop by Madonna della Luce for a lunch time prayer. A design studio occupies a vaulted undercroft, Max Mara a Renaissance palazzo. The captivating fusion of ancient and modern is what makes Umbria, and Perugia in particular, such an attractive place to live. Yes, Monte Castello di Vibio may feel a little over-neat, the shops in Assisi too touristy (although pilgrims have been buying St Francis souvenirs for 800 years), yet there’s nothing precious about the way life continues among the medieval fabric, nothing jarring about the escalators stitched into steep slopes alongside worn stone steps. The juxtaposition is encapsulated in Perugia’s Via dei Priori, which cuts down from one of the great Gothic town halls of Italy between towering medieval houses bridged by flying buttresses. Here, the independent butcher, grocer and electrical shop squeeze in between porticos, chapels and secret alleyways.

Built on a series of rocky spurs, Perugia is a city of layers spanning 2,000 years. Descend beneath the cathedral cloister into a labyrinth of ancient structures and walk along a subterranean road scored with Roman wheel ruts. Just when you think you’ve grasped the layout of the acropolis and its temple, medieval brickwork crashes into an Etruscan wall, setting off in a different direction. (For outstanding remains from Antiquity, visit the Archaeological Museum in the cloister of San Domenico.) Later layers include the bulwark of the papal fort, Rocca Paolina, with medieval Via Baglioni, still a busy thoroughfare, subsumed within.