Basilica di Sant'Ubaldo & Funivia
A rickety open-cage funivia — more birdcage than cable car — lifts you from the edge of town up the steep flank of Monte Ingino to the Basilica di Sant'Ubaldo, patron saint of Gubbio, at 827 metres. The panorama over the terracotta rooftops and the Apennine valleys is one of the most breathtaking in Umbria.
The Ride and the Saint
The cable car departs from a small station on Via San Gerolamo and takes about six minutes to climb through oak and ilex forest. The cages hold only two or three people and swing gently — mildly thrilling, entirely memorable. Locals use it as casually as a bus.
At the top, the 16th-century basilica houses the three enormous wooden ceri — the candle-shaped obelisks carried at breakneck speed through the town streets each 15 May during the Festa dei Ceri, one of Italy's most visceral and ancient festivals. Seeing the ceri up close, each standing over four metres tall, gives genuine scale to the spectacle.
Walking Back Down
A well-marked footpath descends through the forest back to town in around 40 minutes, passing a ruined medieval fortress and several quiet hermitage chapels. It is one of those walks where you keep stopping not because you are tired but because the view keeps changing.
In late autumn the path is carpeted in chestnuts and the forest turns rust and gold — arguably even more beautiful than the summer green. Pack a light layer; the summit can be 5°C cooler than the town below.
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