Golf in Perugia: Umbrian fairways below castles and Etruscan hill towns

Perugia reveals itself in stages: staircases, vaulted alleys, the underground passages of the Rocca Paolina, then Corso Vannucci and the view that opens over the Tiber valley. An Etruscan city, the capital of Umbria and a university town since 1308, it keeps the pace of a small capital where people dine late and walk a great deal. Golf here fits a cultural stay: two 18-hole courses less than half an hour away, and a third, of nine holes, on the shore of Lake Trasimeno.

The terrain is that of the Umbrian hills: oaks, cypresses, olive trees, gentle slopes and lies that are rarely flat. Antognolla, to the north, is played across an estate of almost 500 hectares, overlooked by a castle whose origins go back to a 12th-century Benedictine monastery. Golf Club Perugia, to the west, is the city's historic club, its clubhouse set in a former lime kiln of 1921 whose towers still keep watch over the course.

Three to five nights are enough: one course a day, an afternoon in Assisi, a Michelin-starred dinner, a day by Lake Trasimeno. Perugia airport is twenty-five minutes from the centre, and the old town is best explored on foot. For a more rural stay, you can also base yourself among the vineyards of Torgiano and drive up to town for dinner.