bello Spello, Umbria
We were warmly welcomed to this town at night by our host whom picked us up at the train station and passed by every recommended restaurant in town to see if it was open for us to dine that night. Welcome to Italy.
Skip the rental car inside the village- The streets will win
The streets in Spello are genuinely medieval — narrow stone lanes where a car feels like a liability even for experienced drivers. If you're not used to Italian village driving, you will scrape something. The good news: you don't need one. The centro storico is almost entirely on foot, and everything inside the village is within a 10-minute walk. For getting out to Assisi, Foligno, or further into the valley, a taxi or a car rented from Foligno (the nearest bigger town) works well — but you're not parking it in Spello.
Getting to know the village slowly- The whole point of Spello
Spello rewards slowing down. There's no checklist here — you wander the flower-draped alleyways, you figure out which bar does the best cornetto, you let Emmy run on the Roman walls at golden hour. The village is small enough that after two or three days you start to feel like you live there. That's the experience. The locals are genuinely warm and the pace is nothing like Florence or Rome.
Local restaurants and grocery stores- Worth the whole visit on their own
The restaurants here are genuinely local — no tourist menus, no English translations on the chalkboard, just Umbrian food made the way it's always been made. Truffles show up on everything in season. The grocery stores stock local olive oil, cured meats, and cheeses you can't find anywhere else. Even a simple lunch from the village shop — bread, local salami, a wedge of pecorino — felt like one of the best meals of the trip. Stock up on olive oil before you leave; what they sell in the small local shops here is exceptional.
The Views- Worth the whole visit on their own
Spello sits on the slope of Monte Subasio and the Valle Umbra stretches out below — olive groves, vineyards, hilltop villages in every direction. This is the landscape from the Pinterest board. You don't have to go anywhere specific to see it; it's just there, every time you look up from a terrace or step out a doorway. Chris had a field day. Emmy in an olive grove basically creates content by existing.
Assissi Day Trip- 12km from Spello — the natural next stop
Assisi is the obvious day trip and it delivers. The Basilica di San Francesco with Giotto's fresco cycle is genuinely one of the great things in Italy — even if you're not religious, the scale and the painting are extraordinary. The town itself is beautiful and more manageable than you'd expect. Go on a weekday morning to beat the tour groups, and plan to be back in Spello for a late lunch. Dog-friendly throughout the outdoor areas.
STILL ON THE LIST — NEXT TIME
Infiorata di Spello- One of Italy's great flower festivals
Every year around Corpus Christi (late May/June), Spello covers its streets in elaborate flower petal tapestries overnight — intricate scenes laid by hand and walked over by procession the next morning. The whole village participates. It's one of the most visually spectacular things in Italy and an insane content opportunity. Plan accommodation a year ahead if you want to be there for it.
Pintoricchio frescoes — Santa Maria Maggiorep Spello's famous secret hiding in plain sight
The Baglioni Chapel inside this 12th-century church has a cycle of Renaissance frescoes by Pintoricchio — the same painter who worked in the Vatican. Most people drive past Spello toward Assisi without knowing these exist. Small entry fee, extraordinarily well preserved, and the church is right in the village. Worth 30 minutes even with a toddler.
The honest summary:
Spello is not a "do the sights" destination. It's a slow down, eat well, walk without a plan, let the place change your pace kind of place. If that's what you need — and traveling with a toddler and a dog, it often is — it's close to perfect. The restaurants, the grocery stores, and the views really are worth the whole visit on their own.
