Gubbio leans on the flank of Monte Ingino and climbs in terraces, all of it the same grey stone, with the streets cutting the slope horizontally and the stairways stitching them together. What holds it together is the piazza Grande: it was not born on a shelf of land, it was built over thin air, on a row of great arches that carry the terrace, and leaning on the parapet you look down on the roofs of the lower town. On one side stands the Palazzo dei Consoli, which looks taller than it is because it begins at the bottom of the terrace, and inside are the Iguvine Tablets, seven bronze tablets of the second century BC that are the longest document we have of the Umbrian language. At the foot of the town there is a Roman theatre, at the top of the mountain a basilica, and in between a cable car that is a cage for two people standing.
Sleeping
Stops and overnight stays
The centre is closed to traffic and uphill, so the vehicle stays below in any case. The two areas describe two different ideas of the day: one you choose to be close, the other to be comfortable and be driven up.
Area sosta camper G. Carlini
via del Bottagnone 38, 06024 Gubbio (PG)
the municipal P4, and it is the one where we stayed. Motorhome service point, a drinking water tap and electricity posts, paid for separately, on the order of a euro for two hours. From the yard to the old town is ten or fifteen minutes on foot, and the way passes right by the Roman theatre, so the walk is already half a visit. The toilets are not usable: that is the thing to know before choosing it.
WaterGrey waterElectricity
About 10 euros for twenty four hours, water and waste included
via Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa 110, presso il Suprema Sport Village, 06024 Gubbio (PG)
the equipped alternative, inside a sports centre: wide pitches on fine gravel, a 3 kW electric hook-up, hot showers, clean bathrooms and wifi. It is three and a half kilometres from the centre, four by road, so you do not walk it: what makes it workable is the shuttle service, and that is the thing to check when booking.
The old town is all on a slope and is walked, with level streets and stairways joining them
The vehicle stays outside the walls: at the municipal area on via del Bottagnone, the P4, you are ten or fifteen minutes on foot from the centre and you pass the Roman theatre; at the Suprema Sport Village, three and a half kilometres further out, you are more comfortable but you depend on the shuttle
The Roman theatre is down below, outside the walls: you reach it on foot from the centre in about ten minutes, downhill on the way there
For Monte Ingino there is the cable car, which leaves from the eastern side of the town
Seeing
Sights
Piazza Grande and the palace are the centre of everything. The theatre is down below and the basilica up above, and they are the two detours that lengthen the day. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.
1
Piazza Grande and the great arches
Square · free entry · 43.35311, 12.57859
the hanging square of the fourteenth century, built on a terrace resting on a row of great arches. From the parapet you look down on the roofs of the lower town and out over the plain: it is the thing you remember of Gubbio, more than any single monument.
open every day with continuous hours 10:00 to 18:30, ticket office closing an hour before. Inside is the civic museum, and inside the museum are the seven Iguvine Tablets: bronzes inscribed between the third and the first century BC with the rituals of a priestly brotherhood, in the Umbrian language, part in the Etruscan alphabet and part in the Latin one. They are the most extensive text that exists of an Italic language other than Latin, and without them we would know almost nothing of Umbrian. The ticket is 10 euros, 7 from 19 to 25 years and for groups of fifteen, 5 from 6 to 18, free under 5. A permanent combined ticket does not exist: the one that comes and goes is tied to exhibitions, and lasts only as long as the exhibition.
it stands down below, outside the walls, on the plain: it is of the first century BC and is one of the largest the Roman world has left. In summer performances are still held there. It closes on Mondays; Tuesday and Friday 8:30 to 13:30, Wednesday and Thursday 14:10 to 19:30, Saturday and Sunday 8:30 to 19:30, with last entry half an hour before. The reduced ticket costs 2 euros, and it is free for European citizens under 18. Between 2 March and 10 May 2026 the theatre is closed for the restoration works: the Antiquarium and the Guastuglia excavations stay open.
it is not a cabin lift: it is a metal cage for two people standing, with no doors, hanging from the cable. It climbs to the Colle Eletto in a few minutes and has been running since 1960. It closes on Wednesdays. Anyone who suffers from vertigo should think about it first, and with small children it needs weighing up.
at the top of Monte Ingino, where the cable car arrives. Inside are the three Ceri, the giant wooden prisms that on 15 May are carried at a run up the mountain by the town: the Corsa dei Ceri is one of the oldest festivals in Italy, and the Ceri stay here all the rest of the year.
Next: Mostra Mercato del Tartufo Bianco · 30 Oct - 1 Nov
30 Oct › 1Nov
Mostra Mercato del Tartufo Bianco
two weekends between late October and early November
the white truffle of Gubbio, the prized one, on sale in piazza Quaranta Martiri from the truffle hunters and the producers of the area, from the morning until eight in the evening, with oil, cheeses and cured meats alongside. It is at its 45th edition, and since 2026 the town council has run it directly. Truffle here is not a fashion: the hills around the town are among the parts of Umbria where white truffle is really found, and in those weeks they grate it over everything.
30 Oct - 1 Nov · 6-8 Nov
7Dec
Monte Ingino Christmas tree
from December to Epiphany
the outline of a tree drawn in hundreds of lights on the flank of the mountain above the town, more than seven hundred metres tall. It is the reason people come to Gubbio in December just to look at it from a distance.
15May
Corsa dei Ceri
15 May
the festival that is Gubbio, and the date never changes. Three wooden prisms several metres tall, carrying the statues of Sant'Ubaldo, San Giorgio and Sant'Antonio, are carried at a run on shoulders through the climbing streets and then up Monte Ingino to the basilica. It is run for Sant'Ubaldo Baldassini, the patron saint who died in 1160, and the day begins long before the race: the raising of the Ceri in the morning, the procession, and the town closed. It is not a re-enactment, it is something that has never stopped being done.
30May
Palio della Balestra
last Sunday in May
the crossbowmen of Gubbio against those of Sansepolcro, in piazza Grande, with the old bench crossbow. The return match is shot at Sansepolcro on the second Sunday in September, and the challenge between the two towns has been going on for centuries. In 2026 it falls on 31 May.
to be confirmed
Remember
Useful tips
The cable car closes on Wednesdays: if your day falls on a Wednesday, you climb to the top on foot or you do not go up
The Palazzo dei Consoli keeps continuous hours every day, so it is the thing that never falls through
Gubbio is grey stone, and under cloud it turns grim: it is a town for low light, early morning or late afternoon
The vehicle is left at the P4 on via del Bottagnone and you walk up in a quarter of an hour, past the Roman theatre: it is the nearest area that takes motorhomes, and the walk is worth the driving it saves
Gubbio · part two
and then?
What to do, what to taste, and where to go tomorrow.
Experiences from here
What we did starting from here, ordered by driving time.
wash and dry the pieces of meat well, they must brown and not boil
heat the oil in a wide heavy pan with two crushed cloves of garlic, and brown the meat over a high heat a few pieces at a time, turning until golden on all sides
put all the meat back in the pan, salt, pepper and pour in the white wine, letting it evaporate over a high flame
lower the heat, cover and cook for about half an hour, turning now and then
meanwhile chop the other two cloves of garlic with the rosemary and the sage, put them in a small bowl with the vinegar and the anchovies, and crush the anchovies with a fork until they dissolve
pour the mixture over the meat, raise the flame and let the vinegar evaporate: this is the step that gives the dish its smell, and the kitchen announces it to the whole house
add the tomatoes crushed by hand, the bay leaf and the chilli, cover and cook another forty minutes, or until the meat comes off the bone
uncover for the last ten minutes to reduce the sauce, and serve hot with crescia or torta al testo, which is how the sauce gets mopped up
400 g 00 flour, or half 00 flour and half durum wheat semolina
about 200 ml lukewarm water
1 pinch of salt
40-60 g white truffle
50 g butter
2 tablespoons Umbrian extra virgin olive oil
grated parmesan, a little, if you like
Method
brush the truffle with a soft brush and wipe it with a barely damp cloth: it is not washed under the tap, it loses its scent
pile the flour in a well with the salt and add the water a little at a time, kneading until the dough is smooth and firm; wrap it and let it rest for half an hour
roll it out with the rolling pin to a thickness of two or three millimetres, flour it, roll it up on itself and cut it into strips as wide as they are thick, so that the strangozzi come out almost square
unroll the strips, flour them and let them dry for a quarter of an hour on a cloth; if you are in the motorhome and the worktop is small, you can find them fresh in the town's pasta shops
cook the strangozzi in plenty of salted water for four or five minutes, and keep a ladle of the cooking water aside
meanwhile melt the butter with the oil in a wide pan over a low heat, without letting it fry, and grate a third of the truffle into it
drain the pasta, toss it in the pan with a splash of cooking water until the dressing coats it, and turn off the heat
plate it and shave the rest of the truffle over it in thin slices, with a truffle slicer or a vegetable peeler; the cheese, if you use it, goes on before the truffle and sparingly, because white truffle is not cooked and not covered
Distances and times by road, measured with OSRM on OpenStreetMap data.
Looking
Gubbio in photographs
27 shots from our visit. Tap one to see it large.
the Palazzo dei Consoli in the low light above the roofs, with the Palazzo Pretorio on the right, Monte Ingino behind and the basilica of Sant'Ubaldo at the topPhoto: Sirleonidas, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Gubbio from afar, spread out at the foot of Monte Ingino, with the line of the cable car climbing straight up to the basilicaPhoto: Terensky, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0one of the stairways that stitch the level streets together, between the grey stone houses and a street lamp already litPhoto: WolfgangSailer, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0a paved alley passing under a stone arch, with the banner of a quarter hanging from the house at the endPhoto: Elekes Andor, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0Piazza Grande seen from high up on the Palazzo dei Consoli, with the Palazzo Pretorio and the roofs of the lower town beyond the parapetPhoto: Francesco Falconetti, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Palazzo Pretorio at the end of the square and the parapet from which you look over the roofs of the lower town and the plainPhoto: Albarubescens, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Piazza Grande with the Palazzo dei Consoli white in the sun and the Palazzo Ranghiasci on the rightPhoto: trolvag, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the Palazzo dei Consoli rising above the Loggia dei Tiratori della Lana, with the woods of Monte Ingino behind itPhoto: Mauro Beccaceci, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the fan-shaped staircase of the Palazzo dei Consoli coming down into the square over an arch, with the Palazzo Ranghiasci oppositePhoto: Albarubescens, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the roofs of the town and a bell tower framed by an arch of the Palazzo dei Consoli, with the side of the mountain in the backgroundPhoto: Superchilum, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0the Palazzo dei Consoli at dusk, lit up above the roofs while the lights come on in the plainPhoto: Accurimbono, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Palazzo dei Consoli and the Palazzo Pretorio at night, with the moon rising behind the mountain and the basilica lit up at the topPhoto: Diego Baglieri, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Sala dell'Arengo inside the palace, the great vaulted hall of the civic museum with the Gothic windows at the endPhoto: Sailko, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0the seven Iguvine Tablets in their room of the civic museum, each in its own wooden framePhoto: Sailko, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0one of the Iguvine Tablets close up, with the lines of Umbrian text engraved in the green bronzePhoto: Sailko, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0the façade of the cathedral of Santi Mariano e Giacomo in the evening, with the rose window, the steps and the lit doorwayPhoto: Accurimbono, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the single nave of the cathedral, roofed by a row of diaphragm arches that carry the roof without columnsPhoto: Superchilum, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0the arches of the Roman theatre in the meadow of the plain, with the town and the Palazzo dei Consoli climbing the mountain behindPhoto: Superchilum, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the outer ring of the Roman theatre, two tiers of white stone arches, beneath Monte InginoPhoto: Sirleonidas, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the cavea of the Roman theatre seen from the stage, with the tiers of seats and the remains of the arches abovePhoto: Francesca Incalza, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0one of the cages of the Colle Eletto cable car hanging from the wire, open and without doors, among the pines of the mountainPhoto: Zorro2212, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the cable car cages going down the side of the mountain, with Gubbio and the plain belowPhoto: Zorro2212, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the basilica of Sant'Ubaldo on top of Monte Ingino, with its bell tower and the steps in frontPhoto: Superchilum, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0the brick cloister of the basilica, with the flowered well in the middle and the bell tower above the arcadesPhoto: Albarubescens, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the three Ceri in a row inside the basilica of Sant'Ubaldo, where they stay all year between one race and the nextPhoto: Ceppicone, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the three Ceri raised above the crowd on 15 May, with San Giorgio, Sant'Ubaldo and Sant'Antonio on topPhoto: Marco Riccardini, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Christmas tree drawn in lights on the side of Monte Ingino, above the town and the lit arches of the Roman theatrePhoto: Rivadestra, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
