This Italian City Looks Frozen in the Middle Ages-and It's World-famous for Chocolate

"Established by the Etruscans (a pre-Roman civilization), it became one of Europe's most important centers for textile production during the Middle Ages, exporting its embroidered textiles to the royal courts of Europe. That all changed in the 1500s when the Perugians rebelled against the pope's tax on salt. As punishment, the pope forbade the city's citizens from selling their textiles, plunging them into poverty."

""We were relegated to oblivion from the 1500s until Italian unification," explains Marta Cucchia, who runs the Atelier Giuditta Brozzetti, a textile workshop founded by her great-grandmother about a century ago. "The city has its medieval walls intact because we didn't have the Baroque or any other kind of development. We were frozen in 1540 and remained that way until the unification of Italy. Now we have a completely authentic medieval city, so now it's an advantage.""

Perugia is the capital of Umbria and a well-preserved medieval city with intact walls dating from before 1540. Established by the Etruscans, Perugia became a major textile-production center in the Middle Ages, exporting embroidered textiles to royal courts. A 1500s rebellion against a papal salt tax prompted a papal ban on textile sales, causing economic decline until Italian unification. The lack of later Baroque development preserved the medieval fabric of the city. Perugia is also renowned for chocolate, especially Perugina Baci, and hosts numerous artisan chocolatiers while remaining relatively off the beaten path.

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