Trasimeno nearby

CANTIERE INTERNAZIONALE D’ARTE (Montepulciano, 25 km) 

 19-29 July

This year will see the 37^th edition of this festival which takes place surrounded by the Tuscan landscape and elegant renaissance palazzos.  The festival features symphonic concerts, chamber music, theatre, workshops and multi-media events, all original productions which blend the experience of internationally famous artists with the enthusiasm of young talent.   The festival ends with a great final concert performed on the Piazza Grande. 

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Festival dei Due Mondi di Spoleto - July

Spoleto’s Festival dei Due Mondi is once again the most important music festival of Umbria, bringing together different cultures and great artists from all over the world.  It is a prestigious stage for famous seasoned musicians as well as a chance for new and emerging talents to show off their art. The productions here are all original. 

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Festa dei  Ceri (Gubbio, Km. 56)
This event is held the 15th of May of every year, the eve of the death in 1160 of its Patron Saint, Ubaldo, and has been continuous for centuries. Three huge wooden “candles” (ceri) each topped with the statue of a saint, are hoisted onto the shoulders of runners from the three different neighborhoods: Saint Ubaldo, Saint Anthony and Saint George. The frantic race begins in the centre of town and terminates at the cathedral at the top of Mount Igino.

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 Il Palio di Siena (Siena km.70)

The world-famous Siena Palio takes place every year on 2 July and 16 August on the stunning Piazza del Campo in the centre of this magnificent city.  The origins of the Palio date back to the Middle Ages and it features the rivalry between 17 city neighborhoods, or contrade.  The 2 July version includes costumed parades, exhibitions of banner throwers and drummers, but above all the Palio is when the horses of the various neighborhoods race one another around the piazza in a dramatic, intense and brief competition. 

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TUSCAN SUN FESTIVAL (Cortona, 15 km)

30 July - 7 August

Once again this year the Tuscan Sun Festival, one of Europe’s loveliest festivals, will amaze visitors and locals alike for the quality and stature of its musical stars. But there is much more: there is art, literature and cinema too, all of it in Cortona, a tiny jewel of a town which has become the cult destination for all of those who love to listen to great international voices, famous conductors and extraordinary ensembles.  

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UMBRIA JAZZ (Perugia, 20 km)

Umbria Jazz is Italy’s most popular jazz festival, followed by Umbria Jazz Winter, which after nineteen years has now become Italy’s second most important jazz festival.  Umbria Jazz, therefore, has two festivals a year, one which will take place in Perugia from 6 to 15 July this year, and the other over the New Year’s season in Orvieto.  There is live music on every piazza, in the theatres, churches and cloisters, concerts featuring everything from great rock stars and cult jazz artists.