I've been thinking lately of some of my favorite places in Italy. I'm hooked on Perugia, and Umbria in general.

Perugia is the capital of Umbria, but the population is only 160,000 or so. The city is large enough to be interesting (I spent a month learning Italian there and wasn't bored a single minute) and small enough that you never feel the grit and crime of a big urban center.

I haven't yet found a bad restaurant in Perugia. Sitting in the courtyard of the Hotel La Rosetta when the waiter brings out the whole baker's pan of truffled lasagne and cuts a piece for you is one of life's great experiences. There's nothing like a cloud of truffled steam wafting toward your nostrils. Really. La Rosetta has a huge menu that changes daily.

There's lots of ancient stuff under Perugia. In fact, if you end up in the Piazza Partigiani (there's parking there), you get to the city center via escalators that whisk up through a castle and some medieval houses, now underground. How cool is that?

And even though panhandling reaches an apex during the Perugia Jazz festival, it's worth it. Yes, there are lots of concerts you'll have to pay for--but there's a whole lotta music for the popolo in the piazze too.

If you have a car and 25 friends, you can stay in the Castello di Magrano, too. That'd be a treat!

Here's an interactive map of Perugia.

Happy travels.