The city of oil
The “airy” city visited by Leopardi during his journeys to Rome owes this epithet to the snail shape of the residential centre, the mouth of which is set at the foot of the town, culminating at the top of the main bell tower.
At the summit the remains of the Roman wall delimit the oldest part of the town, whose urban layout is enclosed by the nearly intact medieval wall with thirteenth-century entry gates, along with characteristic small medieval houses built nearby.
Over the course of the Middle Ages, Trevi had an extremely vast territory under its control, which it vigorously defended and cared for. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, for example, Trevi collaborated with the neighbouring communes in the reclamation of the marshes. One more interesting fact worthy of note is that the first printing press in Umbria was installed there in 1470, only the fourth in Italy in that period.
Trevi’s historic centre of today is characterised by a dense expanse of townhouses occasionally interrupted by buildings predominantly from the 1600’s.
Many of the paintings in the churches are by famous artists, such as Perugino’s Adoration of the Magi housed in the church of the Madonna delle Lacrime.