Attractions

Exploring In The Mountains

Bottaccione Gorge -- Out the Porta Metauro, the road toward Scheggia winds above the Carmignano stream in the Bottaccione Gorge between Mts. Ingino on the right and Foce on the left, a steep and rocky landscape spotted with ilex trees. The 390m (1,280 ft.) of folded geologic strata here recorded a 50-million-year slice of time, including the evidence that led to the popular theory that a huge asteroid impact caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. (American scientists found radioactive minerals -- uncommon on Earth but not in asteroids -- in the geological layer here corresponding to 65 million B.C.)

On Mt. Foce, off a path reached by backtracking down Via del Fosso from Porta Metauro, are the remains of prehistoric Cyclopean walls and the 13th-century Hermitage of Sant'Ambrogio, with some frescoes inside and a 14th-century aqueduct nearby.

Monte Ingino -- Outside Porta Romana, a left up Via San Gerolamo leads to the base of the funivia, a ski-lift contraption that dangles you in a little blue cage as you ride up the side of Mt. Ingino (you can also walk up steep Via San Ubaldo from behind the Duomo, a vertical elevation of 300m/984 ft.). It lets you off just below the Basilica di Sant'Ubaldo. The current structure is a 16th-century incarnation over whose high altar the withered corpse of the local patron saint, Ubaldo, is preserved in a glass casket. Stored in the aisle are the three giant wooden ceri used during the annual Corso dei Ceri.

You can take a path leading from the sanctuary farther up the mountainside to the traces of the 12th-century rocca fortress, sitting on the pinnacle of the 900m (2,952-ft.) mountain. The virtually unspoiled wide Saonda Valley lies beyond Gubbio, but even more spectacular is the panorama that opens up east across the surprisingly wild Apennine Mountains and the snowy peaks of Monte Cucco National Park at the Marches' border in the distance. A few trails run off here if you want to do some backwoods exploring.

The funivia (tel. 075-927-3881) lift runs daily, but with excruciatingly complicated hours: November through February from 10am to 1:15pm and 2:30 to 5pm; March from 10am to 1:15pm and 2:30 to 5:30pm (Sun 9:30am-1:15pm and 2:30-6pm); April through May from 10am to 1:15pm and 2:30 to 6:30pm (Sun 9:30am-1:15pm and 2:30-7pm); June from 8:30am to 1:15pm and 2:30 to 7pm (Sun 9am-7:30pm); July through August from 8:30am to 7:30pm (to 8pm Sun); September from 9:30am to 7pm (Sun 9am-7:30pm); and October from 10am to 1:15pm and 2:30 to 5:30pm. Round-trip tickets are 5€ adults, 4€ children 4 to 13; one-way tickets are 4€ adults, 3€ children.