Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Umbria Mobilità (
Click here
)
operates buses between Todi and Perugia (€6.50, 1¼ hours,
nine daily).
By car, Todi is easily reached on the SS3bis-E45, which runs between Perugia and
Terni, or take the Orvieto turn-off from A1 (the Milan-Rome-Naples route).
Trains run to Perugia (€5.10, 50 minutes, 18 daily). Although the train station is 3km
away, city bus C (€1.50, eight minutes) coincides with arriving trains, and every other
hour on Sunday.
WORTH A TRIP
NARNI - THE MAGICAL HEART OF ITALY
Like Greenwich or the North Pole,
Narni
is a place best known for where it is, almost slap-bang at the
geographical centre of Italy. You can walk to a stone marking the exact spot just outside the town. But
Narni has a lot more going for it than merely being the answer to a trivia question. It boasts one of the
finest medieval town centres in Umbria, with a collection of churches, piazzas,
palazzi
and fortresses
that are quite magical - and fittingly so given that CS Lewis used the Roman name for the town
(plucked at random from an ancient atlas) for his own fictional magical kingdom: Narnia.
The town lies 21km south of Todi, just east of the A1 autostrada (from the south take the Magliano
Sabina exit; from the north the Orte exit) and is well served by buses from Terni (€3, 30 minutes) and
Orvieto (€6.50, 1½ hours).
TOP OF CHAPTER
Assisi
POP 27,400
As if cupped in celestial hands, with the plains spreading picturesquely below and Monte
Subasio rearing steep and wooded above, the mere sight of Assisi in the rosy glow of dusk
is enough to send pilgrims' souls spiralling to heaven. It is at this hour, when the pitter-
patter of daytripper footsteps have faded and the town is shrouded in saintly silence, that
the true spirit of St Francis of Assisi, born here in 1181, can be felt most keenly.
