Overnighter: Frescoes and Festivals in an Umbrian Town

Nadia Shira Cohen for The New York Times

The Palazzo dei Consoli, once the place where Parliament gathered in the Middle Ages.

MY family and I made the three-hour drive from Rome to Gubbio, winding around spiraling curves as we approached the medieval Umbrian town on Mount Ingino, only to find that to reach the heart of the historic center we needed to walk up a seemingly perpendicular cobblestone street. Between pushing our 2-year-old daughter in her heavily laden stroller and feeling the sun beam down with fiery concentration, we felt as if we were walking up a wall on this last leg of the journey.

But once we reached Piazza Grande, a central square that, on one side, overlooks the expansive vista of the city and, on the other, ushers visitors into the town's charming streets, we quickly forgave the steep climb.

Gubbio, with 33,000 residents, is the largest commune in the province of Perugia, and has less of a claustrophobic feel than some of its nearby Umbrian cousins like Todi and Urbino. There is a sense of grandness here — with block after block of elegant 14th- and 15th-century faded brick houses, sudden stairways adorned with bright flowers and ever more stunning views as you climb higher into the town. Our plan was to visit for the week, while staying at Fonte al Noce, a resort we'd chosen for its last-minute availability but later happily discovered was filled with similar families — that is, tired parents with small children (our family includes a 7-year-old as well as our toddler) — from all over Europe. Whether you stay a night or a week or longer, you're likely to succumb to the tranquil pleasures of Gubbio.

On the Piazza Grande, we quickly discovered the Palazzo dei Consoli, a towering Gothic building of limestone lined with narrow arched windows. Once the place where Parliament gathered in the Middle Ages, today the palazzo houses an art gallery and museum that offers, in addition to paintings from the Umbrian school and archaeological finds, a glimpse of the famed Iguvine Tablets. We lingered over these seven bronze tablets, created between the third and first century B.C. The inscriptions in an ancient Umbrian language describe the long-ago religious rituals of Gubbio.

Outside the palace, we craned our necks to gaze at the bell tower rising up the side of the palazzo — a slender square structure containing a two-ton bell. Our guidebook told us that the bell-ringers use their feet to ring it. But how did this work? I couldn't picture it: An image of grown men lying flat on their backs kicking up at the enormous bell like babies entered my mind. Later, after happening upon an elaborate costume parade that led to a series of dance performances and an archery contest in the square, we found ourselves seated beneath the tower, staring up at several men stepping forcefully on pedals to put the bell in motion. Mystery solved.

The festival we'd chanced upon was the Torneo dei Quartieri, a crossbow competition among the town districts that is preceded and followed by festivities in the town. Such celebrations are an integral part of Gubbio's cultural life. The Feast of Candles, Corso dei Ceri, which happens every May, is the best known, with three teams racing through town carrying tall wooden pillars resembling large candlesticks, each topped with a statue of a saint. Smaller communal events take place throughout the year.

The number of things to see and do in Gubbio can be daunting, but let yourself off the hook, as we did, and spend a few hours walking aimlessly. This was how we came upon the Fontana dei Matti, or the Fountain of the Madmen. Venturing back down from the Piazza Grande toward the Piazza Quaranta Martiri, where our children had spotted a carousel, we came across some people walking silently around a simple stone fountain. We took a quick glance at our guidebook and realized we were in the Piazza del Bargello. Folklore has it that if you complete three laps around the fountain here, you officially become a lunatic.

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