Perugia

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We spent the afternoon in Perugia, which is Umbria's capital and, among other things, is known for it's chocolate and for being one of Italy's artistic centers.

While the interior of the old town wasn't overly scenic (perhaps I was a bit biased by the gloomy weather that passed through at the time), there was nonetheless a lot of interesting architecture.

I particularly liked the various large arches, such as in the photo above, and the smaller arch-like building connections, as seen in the photo below.

As with Assisi, there were also some nice artistic works built into the sides of various buildings. 

The following is the view of the city's main plaza, with the Fontana Maggiore (a 13th century fountain) in the foreground and the Palazzo dei Priori (the city's town hall, also built in the 13th century) in the background.

At the other side of the plaza is the city's cathedral -- San Lorenzo. It is known for its façade, which was never completed, as well as its orientation (the side entrance, rather than the front entrance, faces the square).

As with all the other towns that we've visited thus far on the trip, the surrounding countryside was very nice and Perugia's elevated location provided a perfect vantage point.

The majority of the old town area had a distinctive feel given the stone that was used in construction. Here's an example of the old houses (or perhaps apartments).

At one end of the city is the Rocca Paulina -- a 16th century fortress that was built over a section of the medieval town.

I thought that the inside of the fortress was very interesting, with various walkways and open areas that are used by merchants.

If you look closely at the picture above, you can see a circular skylight that is about the size of a manhole. Earlier in the day I had walked right over it with no clue that the fortress (not to mention a 40 foot drop) was below me. At the time, I simply thought that I was walking on a regular street.

After walking around a bit more we finished up our visit and headed back to the car. On the way, we passed through the "gate" below. There's apparently another, more famous, gate built by the Etruscans during the 3rd century BC, but we unfortunately didn't pass through that one.