CORTONA
19 miles away

Originally founded by the Estruscans, Cortona is one of the oldest and most scenic hill towns in Tuscany. Today it is a maze of old streets and medieval buildings with breathtaking views over southwestern Tuscany and Lake Trasimeno in Umbria. Due to its steep location, virtually all modern development (i.e., the ugly stuff) has been limited to the lower suburb of Camucia, where the closer of Cortona's two train stations is also located. The station you'll be using, if you arrive by train, is Terontola, a little further to the south.

LAGO TRASIMENO
13 miles away

An immense volcanic crater lake, Lago Trasimeno is the largest lake on the Italian peninsula and fourth-largest in Italy overall. With an average depth of just 5 meters, it is currently in danger of drying up completely thanks to silting and water being siphoned away for irrigation. Of course, people have been saying that for centuries. Attempts to regulate the water level date bake to Roman times.

In 217 BC, Hannibal handed the Romans one of the worst defeats in their history near Lake Trasimeno. Nowadays there are fewer Carthagians or elephants, and more swimmers, boaters, and windsurfers. The lake also has three inhabited islands. Isola Maggiore can be visited by boats departing from Passignano on the north shore. The fortified promontory jutting into the lake on the western shore is Castiglione del Lago.

PERUGIA
25 miles away

Despite being a good-sized city and the capital of the Umbria region, Perugia is still medieval in character. Perugia's many museums and monuments include the church of San Pietro and the ancient rotunda of Sant'Angelo. Founded by the Etruscans in ancient times, Perugia has a particularly violent history. Conquered by Rome in 309 BC, Perugia then took the wrong side in the civil war following the murder of Julius Caesar. In the Middle Ages, Perugia was a major power center ruled by guilds and condottieri, and even conquered Siena in 1358. In 1538 Pope Paul III put a stop to all that when he swept the colorfully demented Baglioni family from power, but the violence wasn't quite over. During the 19th-Century Italian unification, the city's liberation from the Papacy resulted in a massacre of numerous citizens by the Swiss Guard.

UMBERTIDE
11 miles away

Okay, Umbertide isn't a tourist destination -- just a regular town with a small medieval center including the Palazzo Comunale and the church of Santa Croce, and the privately owned castle of Civitella Ranieri just to the northeast. However, Umbertide is where the nearest beyond-the-basics shopping and Internet cafes are.