Funivia del Colle Eletto (Monte Ingino Cable Car)
Gubbio's cable car is unlike any other in Italy: instead of a conventional cabin, you ride in an open metal cage — locally called a gabbietta — dangling above terracotta rooftops and olive groves as you ascend to the Basilica di Sant'Ubaldo at 827 metres. The view from the top is a panoramic sweep over the whole medieval city, the Eugubine plain and the first ridges of the Apennines.
The Ride Up
The gabbietta holds three people and rises at a stomach-fluttering angle; it is perfectly safe but genuinely exhilarating, especially for anyone unused to open-air lifts — children love it and nervous adults are usually converted within thirty seconds of leaving the ground.
The ascent takes about six minutes and deposits you beside the basilica, which houses the body of Gubbio's patron saint, Ubaldo Baldassini, in a glass urn above the high altar — an unexpectedly moving sight after the breezy ride up.
The Summit Experience
From the terrace outside the basilica you can see the entire grid of Gubbio's medieval streets laid out below like a map, with the pale bulk of Palazzo dei Consoli anchoring the centre — this is the photograph that makes people book flights to Umbria.
Every year on 15 May, the Ceri race finishes here: three enormous wooden 'candles' weighing 400 kg each are carried at a sprint up the mountain by teams of ceraioli — witnessing the finish at the basilica is one of the most electrifying moments in Italian folk culture.
Extending the Walk
If you walk ten minutes further along the ridge past the basilica you reach a ruined medieval fortress, the Rocca, where the views extend south toward Assisi on clear days.
A marked trail (CAI 255) descends back to town through oak forest in about 45 minutes — a lovely way to return if your legs are willing.
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