If you love ghost stories and mysteries, get ready for a ghostly adventure, among legends and apparitions, in the castles and monasteries of Umbria. Here are some suggestions for a chilling experience in our region.

The ghost of Sora Laura at Palazzo Vitelli alla Cannoniera - Città di Castello

In the historical centre of Città di Castello is Palazzo Vitelli alla Cannoniera, a magnificent Renaissance residence housing important works of art and home to the Municipal Art Gallery. Inside its elegant rooms, the ghost of Sora Laura is said to roam.

This story dates back to the first half of the 16th century when, after marriage, the condottiero Alessandro Vitelli and the noblewoman Angela Paola dei Rossi di San Secondo Parmense decided to build the palace. The condottiero was known to be a womanizer and soon fell in love with a young woman named Laura. In order not to be discovered, Alessandro had his wife moved to another family palace and reserved Palazzo Vitelli alla Cannoniera for his lover. While waiting for her lover to return from his military campaigns, the young woman devoted herself to embroidering handkerchiefs, but one day, tired of waiting for her lover, she saw a handsome knight from the window of her room and, to attract his attention, threw a handkerchief out of the window. The knight, fascinated by the young woman, accepted her invitation to bring the handkerchief back to the palace. After the first passionate encounters, for fear of being discovered by Vitelli, she decided to use a trick to make her lover fall into a trapdoor where an atrocious death awaited him, pierced by the blades of the bottom. The same fate befell other young men, seduced by her beauty, until the day she herself was killed, by a hitman sent by Vitelli's wife, who discovered the betrayal.

Legend has it that the ghost of the young woman, trapped in the palace, is tormented by remorse and is still seeking forgiveness. It is said that some photometric surveys and acoustic monitoring carried out in 2012 seem to have captured the shadow of a young woman in Renaissance clothing.

The Colonel's garden at Castel d'Arno and the Alfani family

Descending into the heart of the region, a few kilometres from Perugia, is a small fortified village, Castel d'Arno, where other ghostly stories are told.

Between the 16th and 17th centuries, this place became the refuge of a band of brigands, relatives and servants of the bloodthirsty Colonel Francesco Alfani. The latter moved to the family's former estate after being banished from Perugia due to a series of personal vendettas linked to an insult received from a nobleman. For revenge or money, he committed various crimes and it is said that he buried his victims still alive in the garden of Castel d'Arno. A popular tale has it that on nights when the moon is full, the voices of the victims can still be heard calling for help. Today, the place, which is partly abandoned, is used as an olive grove.

Another scary story is linked to the Alfani family. The story goes that three masked hunters met a peasant girl near the village and asked her if there were any hares to hunt. The girl replied that the 'Alfanacci', well-known brigands of the area, had eaten them all. But under the big hats that hid the hunters' faces were the three Alfani brothers, who took the poor peasant girl and put her into the oven where the wood was already burning.