Palazzo Trinci, Foligno

Palazzo Trinci stands on the central Piazza della Repubblica in Foligno, the seat of the Trinci family who ruled the town and much of the surrounding Valle Umbra between 1305 and 1439. Behind a facade later given a Neoclassical front, the palace preserves a remarkable suite of early-15th-century rooms decorated in the elegant International Gothic style for Ugolino III Trinci, largely the work of Gentile da Fabriano and his circle around 1411 to 1412. The painted programme is unusually learned: the Hall of the Liberal Arts and the Planets sets personifications of grammar, rhetoric and the sciences beneath the planetary deities; the Loggia is frescoed with the legendary founding of Rome and the story of Romulus and Remus; the Corridor of Hercules and the Hall of the Giants celebrate heroes and famous men of antiquity; and a private chapel was painted by Ottaviano Nelli. Today the palace is the town's cultural hub, housing the Pinacoteca Comunale with its picture gallery, an archaeological collection and a multimedia museum, so a visit moves between Gothic frescoes and wider holdings. Allow around an hour to ninety minutes. Foligno sits on the plain at the crossroads of Umbria, a major rail junction and a useful base, and is famous for the Giostra della Quintana, a historic baroque-costume jousting tournament held in June and September that fills the streets with parades and rivalry between the town's quarters. Visiting around the Quintana adds a vivid festival atmosphere. The palace is in the heart of the old town beside the cathedral and is reached on foot, by car or by train.