Norcia: grace and flavours in another Italy As you drive towards Norcia, first along the Nera and then along its tributary the Corno, the remoteness of this mountain fastness is brought home. The valley narrows down into a sheer-sided gorge; until a road tunnel was blasted out in 1857, a rock-hewn pedestrian and donkey passageway, the Sasso Tagliato, was the only way through. It comes as a relief, and a surprise, when the gorge opens out all of a sudden into the verdant upland plain of Santa Scolastica. There, ahead of you, in the middle of the plain, backed by the rounded peaks of the Monti Sibillini, is a neat walled town, unblemished by urban sprawl. Its position alone - at the centre of a well-irrigated breadbasket of a plain, with endless summer pastures in the mountains above - explains why Norcia has been considered such a prize down through its long history, from Sabines and Romans through to princes and popes. One thing strikes you immediately: there are none of the usual medieval towers, and even the palazzos of the nobility seem modest in their vertical ambitions. This is not because of lack of funds or imagination on the part of the town's ruling classes. It's because Norcia lies on a fault line, and has suffered a series of devastating earthquakes over the years - such as the one in 1328 that razed it, leaving only the stout town walls in place. After several more, in the 18th century the town's pontifical rulers issued an edict that no building could be more than two storeys high. And so Norcia went for decoration rather than height, embellishing its civic and spiritual architecture with ornate balconies and intricately carved stone lintels and arches. Today, Norcia is associated in the rest of Italy above all with its salumi, or pork and wild boar products, which come in sausages, salamis and cured hams of all shapes and sizes. As you stroll down the central Corso Sertorio, around the civic and religious hub of Piazza San Benedetto or in the lanes behind, every other shop seems to be a norcineria (a name adopted by cured pork butchers all over Italy, even if they don't come from Norcia). That there may be a little more supply than demand right now is suggested by some of the signs on display outside these piggy emporia announcing "anti-crisi" offers if you buy a package that might include a jar of truffle paste, two wild boar salamis and two wild boar coglioni (literally "balls," referring to their shape rather than their anatomical provenance). The skill of the norcini in making use of every inch of the pig had some interesting spin-offs. In Preci, a rather dour town a few miles north, pork butchery segued into human incisions: a school of self-taught surgeons sprang up here in the Renaissance that was famous throughout Europe. A surgeon from Preci, Cesare Scacchi, was even called to London to operate on Queen Elizabeth I's cataracts in 1588. Norcia's other claim to fame is less earthy. These remote but gentle valleys have long attracted monks and hermits, and it was here in around 480 that Saint Benedict, the founder of Western monasticism and the town's patron saint, was born. The Benedictine order's mother church of San Benedetto in the main square has an unexpectedly simple interior - probably because it has been rebuilt so many times following earthquake damage - but the real draw is the ancient crypt downstairs (which purportedly stands on the site of the house where Benedict and his equally saintly sister Scolastica were born), especially if you get there at 7.45pm for Compline, when Gregorian chant resonates from the vaults. Make sure you're at the locked door down to the crypt a few minutes before: a monk will come up to let you in. Another saint, Rita, is celebrated in nearby Cascia. Famous for a suppurating wound on her forehead (which miraculously stopped stinking only when she went to Rome to visit the Pope, thus sparing the pontifical nostrils), Rita is a real people's saint, and coachloads of pilgrims come to visit the gaudy Fascist-era basilica that consecrates her cult. Far more rewarding, at least in aesthetic terms, is the church of Sant'Antonio in the lower town, with its two 15th-century fresco cycles by supposedly "minor" artists. The life of St Anthony the Great has a tender delicacy of detail (note the grass and flowers beneath the camels' hooves), while Nicolò da Siena's scenes from The Passion have the Technicolor immediacy of a Renaissance graphic novel - which in a way is what this was. Many visitors simply pass through Norcia on their way to Castelluccio and the Sibillini mountains. Italy's highest permanently inhabited village, Castelluccio stands on a rise overlooking the Piano Grande, a vast upland plain divvied up into a patchwork of lentil fields. It's an unforgettable sight, but the village offers only the most basic accommodation, and in the surrounding hills you're pretty much limited to mountain refuges. If you're looking for comfort and a certain gastronomic breadth of choice in the evening, the best approach is to take to the mountains by day, on foot or by bike, on horse or donkey back, by hang-glider or paraglider, and return to Norcia's excellent restaurants and wine bars in the evening, with burnt-off calories to replace. Not only does Norcia now offer, in Palazzo Seneca, a boutique hotel to compare with Italy's best; it also has a lively cultural scene, with classical and jazz concerts livening up the cool but rarely chilly summer nights. If you've already visited Spoleto, and the tourist crowds of Assisi do not appeal, you could do worse than travel through the Forca di Cerro tunnel-portal to one of Umbria's most rewarding little historic towns. Neat and cultured, combining mountain air with urban grace, Norcia is the perfect next stop for the well-travelled Italophile. Norcia is not the easiest place to get to - that's part of its appeal. By road, allow two hours from Rome, via Terni, and around two and a half from Florence, via Perugia. Public transport means buses: either from Rome via Terni (three-hour journey, twice a day Mon-Sat, once Sun) or from Spoleto (55-minute journey, six times a day Mon-Sat, four times a day Sun). Timetables at umbriamobilita.it. Palazzo Seneca (Via Cesare Battisti 10, 0039 0743 817434; palazzoseneca.com, double room from 130 euros/£107), a 16th-century palace in the centre of Norcia close to Piazza San Benedetto, was brought back to life by its owners, the Bianconi family, after the damage the building suffered in the 1997 earthquake. Opened as a 24-room aristocratic town-house hotel in 2008, this elegant contemporary-modern five-star is currently the only Umbrian property in the Relais & Châteaux group. Service is efficient, the small spa with Turkish bath and sauna is perfect for relaxing after a day in the hills, and the hotel's upmarket restaurant, Vespasia, is the only real gourmet spot in a town more associated with hearty mountain fare. Across the road from Palazzo Seneca, the bustling Granaro del Monte (Via Alfieri 6, 0743 816513, closed Tues, about 35 euros/£29 a head with wine), also owned by the Bianconi family, is the oldest continuously active restaurant in Umbria. It has been going since 1850, and the black truffle pasta and Chianina steaks served up underneath the cross-vaulted ceilings of what was once the municipal pawn shop fly the flag for traditional Umbrian-Tuscan cuisine. Just outside the centro storico of Preci, on the main road, Il Castoro (Via Roma, 0743 939248, closed Thurs, about 30 euros/£25 a head with wine) is a buzzing wooden chalet restaurant where truffles every which way are the main attraction. Perhaps the most scenic restaurant in the Valnerina - providing you can nab one of the few riverside tables - is Del Ponte (Via del Borgo 11, 0743 61253, closed Mon, about 35 euros/£29 a head with wine) in Scheggino, a pretty village that is like a (very) mini Venice, with a canalised but still fast-flowing branch of the Nera flowing down the main street. Grilled local trout is the dish to go for, but it's all good. More information Norcia tourist office (0743 828173) Lee Marshall is our destination expert for Tuscany, Florence, Rome and Sicily. Click on the links below to read his complete guides, featuring the best hotels, restaurants, bars, attractions and shops. Rome city break guide Florence city break guide Tuscany travel guide Sicily travel guide