Once an important Roman centre - the grid-iron of streets is the only legacy - today the plain-bound site is drab and preserves only a handful of fairly mediocre medieval monuments. The town's only real merit, apart from some quiet, pleasant medieval streets and a bargain restaurant , is its ten-roomed Pinacoteca at Via della Cannoniera 22 (Tues-Sat: late March to mid-July 9.30am-12.45pm & 3-6pm; mid-July to Sept 9.30am-12.45pm & 3-7.15pm; Oct to mid-March 10am-12.30pm & 3-5.30pm; L8000/4.13), one of the region's best galleries after Perugia's. The collection makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity, taking in works by Raphael, Signorelli, Ghirlandaio and Lorenzetti , plus a wondrous MaestA  by the anonymous fourteenth-century Maestro di CittA  di Castello. There are also several sculptures, the most notable by Ghiberti, and a glittering reliquary of Florentine origin, dating from 1420.

If you stop off, then the banal reworked Duomo in Piazza Gabriotti warrants a call for its museum (daily: April-Sept 10.30am-1pm & 3-6pm; Oct-March 10am-1pm & 3-5.30pm; L5000/2.58), which contains the treasure of Canoscio , a precious hoard of sixth-century silver chalices dug up in 1932. The town's other more paltry offerings include a late-Renaissance choir , located in San Francesco's Cappella Vitelli, and the fourteenth-century Palazzo Comunale , an imposing but unfinished work by Angelo da Orvieto, who was responsible for the vastly more impressive palaces in Gubbio.

CittA  di Castello's tourist office in the Logge Bufalini in Piazza Matteotti (daily 9am-1pm & 4-7pm; tel 075.855.4922, info@iat.citta-di-castello.pg.it ) deals with the whole Upper Tiber region and so is a useful stop if you're spending any time locally. The town's top-of-the-range hotel is the central Tiferno , Piazza R. Sanzio 13 (tel 075.855.0331, fax 075.852.1196; L150,000-200,000/77.47-103.29). A cheaper, equally well-located alternative is the excellent modern one-star Umbria , Via dei Galanti 4, off Via Sant'Antonio (tel 075.855.4925, fax 075.852.0911; L90,000-120,000/46.48-61.98), just inside the medieval walls, in the east of the old centre. There's also a pleasant, rural campsite at La Montesca, 1km west of town on the minor road to Monte San Marina - the Montesca (tel 075.852.0808, fax 075.852.0786; May-Sept). Best of several good restaurants is Amici Miei , downstairs in a medieval cellar at Via del Monte 2 (closed Wed): there's no choice, but the menu changes daily and you get four wonderful courses including wine for a bargain L30,000/15.50.

A couple of kilometres south of CittA  di Castello, in the hamlet of GARAVELLE , is one of Umbria's best folk museums , the Centro delle Tradizioni Popolari (Tues-Sun: summer 9am-12.30pm & 3-7pm; winter 9am-noon & 2-6pm; L5000/2.58). Situated in the Villa Cappelletti, Via Marchese Cappelletti, this is basically an eighteenth-century farmhouse, preserved with all the accoutrements of daily life - pots, pans, furniture and so forth, plus a range of exhibits covering rural activities from wine making, weaving and carpentry through to the blacksmith's forge. Totally out of context, the museum also has a model railway collection (Mon-Fri 3-5pm).