The balcony of Umbria — Sagrantino wine from the world's only grove of this ancient grape, Benozzo Gozzoli's Renaissance frescoes inside a wine museum, and views to seven Umbrian cities from one hilltop
Montefalco is a small Umbrian hilltop town known as the 'ringhiera dell'Umbria' (balcony of Umbria) for its 360-degree panoramic views across the Vale of Spoleto. The town produces Sagrantino di Montefalco DOCG — a wine from the indigenous Sagrantino grape grown only in this small zone, one of Italy's most intensely tannic red wines. The Museo Civico di San Francesco holds a complete fresco cycle by Benozzo Gozzoli (1452) depicting the Life of Saint Francis, rivalling the Assisi cycle in vibrancy.
Montefalco was an Umbrian and later Roman settlement known as Coccorone. The town walls and medieval plan date from the 12th-14th centuries. It was the birthplace of Saint Clare of Montefalco (1268-1308) — an Augustinian mystic canonised in 1881. The Sagrantino grape was long grown only for sacramental wine by local monasteries; commercial development began in the 1970s and DOCG status was granted in 1992.