Umbria is virtually the heartland of the Italian peninsula, with a history which goes back beyond the Romans and Etruscans into the foggy dawning of European culture. The collapse of Roman power was followed by the invasion of the Lombards or Langobards, a cruel and destructive race of barbarians, until out of the wreckage rose the Italian towns and communes in which the Renaissance later flourished. History apart, there is a good deal of information about topography, food and wine, art (the Umbrian School is one of the peaks of Italian painting) and architecture. Since Assisi is in Umbria, St Francis gets a chapter to himself. A book to keep.