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Umbria: Basic Facts

Of the 19 "autonomous" administrative regions of Italy, Umbria (8,456 square kilometers; 2001 population: 835,000; capital: Perugia) is the only one without a coast or a foreign border. Like much of Italy, over 50% of it is classified as hills or high plateaux. Temperate in climate, it is primarily agricultural, and is particularly proud of its olive oil, probably the best in Italy. Its wines on the other hand, while good and occasionally excellent, are not of the first rank as a group. Other important agricultural products are tobacco and sunflowers.

It is divided into two provinces: Perugia in the North, disproportionately large with two-thirds of both population and area, and Terni. There has been persistent talk of carving a third province mainly out of the former, for the seat of which Spoleto and Foligno are the chief rivals.

Students of ancient Rome should be aware that the modern region of Umbria is not identical with ancient Italy's Umbria, Augustus's Regio VI. Roman Umbria, while roughly coinciding with today's entity in its southern portion, extended further east and north, and included the long Adriatic coastline of what is now the northern Marche, up to and including Rimini; while Perugia — today's capital — was then in Etruria, a few miles west of the region's borders.

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