Museum sights in Umbria & Le Marche
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Museo della Ceramica a Lustro e Torre Medioevale di Porta Romana
Just below the Funivia Colle Eletto is the Museo della Ceramica a Lustro e Torre Medioevale di Porta Romana. The a lustro ceramic style has its origins in 11th-century Muslim Spain. On the 2nd floor, ceramics from prehistoric times share space with medieval and Renaissance pieces. There’s also a collection of crossbows from the 18th century, some of which have a target range as far as 50m. Check out the really unfun-looking chastity belt on the 4th floor and appreciate the fact that you are alive today instead of 300 years ago.
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Pinacoteca
The second-largest art gallery in Le Marche is inside the 17th-century Palazzo Comunale. The Pinacoteca boasts an outstanding display of art, sculpture and religious artefacts, 400 works in total, including paintings by Van Dyck, Titian and Rembrandt, and a stunning embroidered 13th-century papal cape worn by Ascoli-born Pope Nicholas IV. The gallery was founded in 1861 with works taken from churches and religious orders that were suppressed in the wake of Italian unification.
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Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria
The Palazzo dei Priori houses some of the best museums in Perugia. The foremost art gallery in Umbria is the stunning Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, entered from Corso Vannucci. It’s an art historian’s dream, with 30 rooms of artwork dating back to Byzantine-like art from the 13th century, as well as rooms dedicated to works from hometown heroes Pinturicchio and Perugino.
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Nobile Collegio del Cambio
The Nobile Collegio del Cambio is considered by some as the most beautiful bank in the world. It has three rooms: the Sala dei Legisti (Legist Chamber), with wooden stalls carved by Giampiero Zuccari in the 17th century; the Sala dell’Udienza (Audience Chamber), with frescoes by Perugino; and the Chapel of San Giovanni Battista, painted by a student of Perugino’s, Giannicola di Paolo.
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Museo Archeologico Nazionale dell’Umbria
The Museo Archeologico Nazionale dell’Umbria will boggle the mind with its collection of Etruscan and prehistoric artefacts – carved funerary urns, coins, Bronze Age statuary – dating back to the 16th century BC. The Cippo Perugino (Perugian Memorial Stone) has the longest Etruscan-language engraving ever found, offering a new window into the language.
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Museo Tattile Statile Omero
Museo Tattile Statile Omero is the only museum of its kind in all of Europe; this is one museum where you’re supposed to touch the art. All of its sculptures have been created for the blind in order to feel the representations of Roman statues, the Parthenon and St Peter’s, as well as Michelangelo’s David.
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Museo di Palazzo della Penna
The modern art museum Museo di Palazzo della Penna is as stunning for its palatial surroundings as for its artwork. Frescoes from the 18th and 19th centuries share space with 20th-century futurist Gerardo Dottori and German painter and sculptor Joseph Beuys, a radical ideologist whose artwork transcends social boundaries.
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Museo Pinacoteca di Todi
The lugubrious 13th-century Palazzo del Capitano links to the Palazzo del Popolo to create what is now the Museo Pinacoteca di Todi which features an elegant triple window and houses the city’s recently restored pinacoteca (art gallery) and archaeological museum.
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Museo Archeologico Nazionale delle Marche
The Museo Archeologico Nazionale delle Marche is in the 16th-century Palazzo Ferretti, where the ceilings are covered with original frescoes and bas-reliefs. Although not the most thoughtfully laid-out display, artefacts range from Greek and Etruscan back to the Bronze and Neolithic Ages.
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Museo Civico
The Palazzo dei Consoli houses the Museo Civico, which displays the Eugubian Tablets, discovered in 1444. The seven bronze tablets are the main source for research into the ancient Umbrian language. Upstairs is a picture gallery featuring works from the Gubbian school.
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Museum
The small museum attached to the cathedral holds the 4th-century sarcophagus of Flavius Gorgonius, a masterpiece of early Christian art. You can take bus 11, which runs from Piazza Roma to Piazza Repubblica, or get your exercise walking up the rather steep hill.
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Museo Claudio Faina e Civico
This fantastic museum opposite the cathedral houses one of Italy's most important collection of Etruscan archaeological artefacts – including plenty of stone sarcophagi and terracotta pieces – as well as some significant Greek ceramic works.
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Cappella di San Severo
The Cappella di San Severo is decorated with Raphael’s Trinity with Saints (thought by many to be his first fresco) during the artist’s residence in Perugia (1505–08) and frescoes by his teacher Perugino, dating to 1521.
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Museo di Emilio Greco
Museo di Emilio Greco displays a collection of modern pieces donated by the creator of the cathedral's bronze doors. You can get a combined ticket (adult/child around €6.50/4) for admission to the Pozzo di San Patrizio.
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National Museum of the Dukedom of Spoleto
Rocca Albornoziana is currently home to the National Museum of the Dukedom of Spoleto, which houses historical information as well as artwork from Spoleto's pinacoteca, which will remain closed for several years.
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Pozzo Etrusco
You can venture down into the 3rd century–BC Pozzo Etrusco. The 36m-deep well was the main water reservoir of the Etruscan town, and, more recently, the source of water during WWII bombing raids.
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Mole Vanvitelliana
The large building at the waterfront is the Mole Vanvitelliana, designed by Luigi Vanvitelli in 1732 for Pope Clementine. It is now the magnificent venue for some major exhibitions. Call them for details.
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Museo Archeologico
Make your first stop the Museo Archeologico, located on the western edge of Piazza della Libertà. It holds a well-displayed collection of Roman and Etruscan bits and bobs from the area.
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Cassero di Porta Sant’Angelo
The Cassero di Porta Sant’Angelo has a panoramic view facing back onto Perugia which is the main reason to come out here, plus it offers a historical briefing of the three city walls.
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Museo Archeologico Nazionale
Though not quite in the same league as the other attractions on the Piazza Duomo, the archaeological museum nonetheless holds plenty of interesting artefacts, some over 2500 years old, even if the displays are a little bit jumbled and unfocused.
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Teatro delle Muse
The ornate Teatro delle Muse, built in 1826, has a neoclassical facade of six Ionic columns which meld with Greek friezes portraying Apollo and the Muses.
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Museo Archeologico
The Museo Archeologico holds a small collection of tribal artefacts from Piceni and other European people back to the first centuries AD.
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Pinacoteca Civica
The Pinacoteca Civica shows off Spello's artistic, religious and architectural past.
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Palazzo Papale
Around the corner in the Papal Palace, you can see one of Italy’s most important collections of Etruscan archaeological artefacts in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale and the more interesting Museo Claudio Faina e Civico, where you’ll find some significant Greek ceramic works, mostly found near Piazza Cahen in tombs dating to the 6th century BC.
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San Feliciano
The working town of San Feliciano still sees fishermen leave to trawl for fish in the morning (visitors can join them). The town's main draw is the fishing museum.
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