Trevi (; ) is an ancient town and (municipality) in Umbria, Italy, on the lower flank of overlooking the wide plain of the Clitunno river system.

Located in the Province of Perugia, it is 10 km (6 mi) south-southeast of Foligno and 20 km (12 mi) north of Spoleto. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy").

Most of the town, densely inhabited and of decidedly medieval aspect, lies on sharply sloping terrain, only the very center being more or less flat. It commands one of the best views in Umbria, extending over 50 km (30 mi) in most westerly directions. Trevi is served by the Rome–Ancona railway as well as the Florence–Rome railway via Perugia.

Trevi is a member of Cittaslow.

History Antiquity Historians traditionally place the foundation of Trevi in the mid-4th century BC. Trebia or Treba was an Umbrian city situated on the western slopes of the Apennines, between Fulginium and the sources of the Clitunno. Originally it lay in the plain on the banks of that river, as recalled by the phrase "Clitumnus fluvius qui Trevis civitatem Flaminiae interluit" in the Vatican gloss on Juvenal.

Whatever its earliest origin, whether Celtic or Etruscan, Trevi in antiquity was only a castle or fortress, and this memory survived in the place name Piazza della Rocca.

In the late 2nd century BC the town was taken by Rome. Pliny listed it among the municipalities of Umbria, and inscriptions mention the Trebiates. In the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum it appears as Trevis, from which the present name developed.

After the end of Roman rule it passed under the Goths and later under the Lombards, as part of the Duchy of Spoleto.

Trevi became an episcopal see in the 3rd century and remained so, according to the chronicle of Gualdo, until the 9th century, or according to some writers until the 11th century.

Middle Ages and Early Modern era In the Middle Ages it was included in the duchy of Spoleto and with it passed, together with other neighboring cities, under the dominion of the Church.

Innocent III united Trevi to Foligno, and it remained with that city while Foligno was Guelph; it again returned under Foligno during the rule of Ugolino II Trinci, vicar of the Church and lord of Foligno.

The municipality of Trevi emerged in 1213. Trevi suffered from siding now with the Guelphs and now with the Ghibellines. In 1310 the Perugians rode to Trevi, forcibly restored the Guelphs there, and expelled the opposing faction.

It was later ruled by Biordo Michelotti, then occupied by Niccolò Piccinino, and afterwards by Francesco Sforza. After the fall of Trinci power in 1439, it was subjected to other lords and later, having passed to the Church, was governed by the cardinal legates of Umbria. The city had a Mount of Piety established in 1469.

In 1513 the town was threatened with serious danger because of the hostility of Spoleto, whose forces came to besiege it with an army of 7,000 combatants, but, through the intervention of Perugia and Foligno, they abandoned the undertaking.

From the mid-15th century to the end of the 18th century it was governed within the framework headed by the governor-general of the province of Perugia and Umbria. Trevi was granted the title of city in 1784, under Pius VI.

Contemporary period

Between 1798 and 1799 Trevi came under the Roman Republic. From 1799 to 1809 papal rule was restored, before the town became part of the French Empire from 1809 to 1814. In 1814, after the French withdrew, Trevi returned to Church jurisdiction.

On 6 July 1816, by a motu proprio of Pope Pius VII, Trevi was classified as a community hosting a governor and placed within the Delegation of Spoleto. In 1817 it remained the seat of a governor, and Campello, Cerreto, Montesanto, and Sellano were placed under it.

In September 1860 Piedmontese troops captured the principal cities of the region. On 4–5 November 1860 Umbria voted in a referendum on annexation to the Kingdom of Italy, and on 17 December 1860 Trevi was annexed.

Trevi had 5,337 inhabitants in 1895.

Geography Trevi stands at above sea level, between Foligno and Spoleto, on the summit of a hill entirely covered with olive trees. In the surrounding territory, the land is described as highly fertile. The hillside is covered with olive groves, while in the plain vegetables are cultivated.

The city stands on the summit and southern slope of a steep hill branching from Monte Petino and joining to the east with the Apennine range, overlooking the . It lies a short distance from the Via Flaminia, with Foligno to the north and Spoleto to the east.

In the mid-19th century, woodland reportedly consisted only of coppice groves.

The territory extends over from the valley (210 m) to Mts. Brunette (1422 m) and Serano (1429 m) and can be divided into three more or less equal zones: plain, hills, and mountain; each with its own characteristic vegetation. In the plain, the very fertile land is well irrigated by many watercourses, heirs for the most part to the of Antiquity, and is suited to annual crops. The hills, of a very loose alkaline limestone with excellent drainage, are an ideal terrain for the intensive and highly specialized cultivation of olive trees that produce a very characteristic and highly prized oil. Finally, the mountains are covered in meadows and forests, primarily deciduous.

The natural environment of the territory as a whole remains largely unspoiled, this despite being significantly populated for millennia. The mountainous area is now witnessing a considerable depopulation — as elsewhere in Italy, in the second half of the 20th century settlements at the highest elevations have been rapidly losing their inhabitants to the plains. The most important growth areas since the period following World War II have been Borgo Trevi (commercial, residential, and offices), Pietrarossa (industrial), and Matigge (light and medium industry, commercial).

Many rivers and canals, none of them very large, run in a general south-to-north direction, converging into a single river near Bevagna. Their courses are by now highly artificial, the result of land and water management projects undertaken over many centuries, since they are recorded at least as early as the time of Theodoric the Great (6th century) and have continued down to our own time with the construction of dams and works to regularize the seasonal waters of the Marroggia that had been subject to frequent torrential overflows with sudden and disastrous results.

The most important of the year-round watercourses is the Clitunno River, celebrated in antiquity as the Clitumnus, whose deified waters were reputed to have miraculous properties and which have been lauded in prose and verse by Pliny the Younger, Propertius, Claudian, Addison, Byron and Carducci.

Trevi borders the following municipalities: Campello sul Clitunno, Castel Ritaldi, Foligno, Montefalco, Sellano, Spoleto.

Subdivisions The municipality includes the localities of Cannaiola, Casco dell'Acqua, Corciano-Pigge, Coste, Coste San Paolo, Il Colle, La Valle, Le Corone, Manciano, Marroggia, Picciche, San Donato, San Lorenzo, San Pietro a Pettine, Santa Maria in Valle, Trevi.

In 2021, 804 people lived in rural dispersed dwellings not assigned to any named locality.

At the time, the most populous locality was Trevi proper (4,702). The historical subdivisions of Trevi proper are the terzieri of Castello, Matiggia e Piano; they come into play only for the Palio.

Economy The mainstays of Trevi's economy are olive oil and tourism.

The surrounding territory is described as fertile and productive, with olive cultivation being especially extensive. In the 19th century olive growing was so extensive that for several months it provided work to important oil mills and sustained a specialized export trade in prized olive oil. In the plain, irrigated vegetable cultivation also formed a significant part of local agricultural production.

Trevi is known for its long-standing olive oil production. The surrounding landscape includes olive groves, vineyards producing Trebbiano, and cultivated fields such as those used for the production of black celery. The Sentiero degli Ulivi connects Spoleto and Assisi and passes through the territory of Trevi at elevations of about to , with scattered rural houses dating to the 16th century associated with olive cultivation.

The territory is known for the quality of its oil, a result of near-ideal calcareous soil with excellent drainage, just the right altitude for the cultivation of olive trees, and favourable climatic conditions on the west-facing lower slopes of the Apennine mountain range.

Trevi's good train and highway access has made the town the most convenient base for visiting central Umbria for those who rely on public transportation; the unusual number of good restaurants in the municipality is partly the cause, partly the result of increased tourism.

Religion Sant'Emiliano

The church of Sant'Emiliano preserves on the exterior wall to the east the remains of a chapel decorated with three apses, a construction of the 11th century. The principal entrance has a rectangular form and ends in a pediment with the statue of Sant'Emiliano in the center and two lions at the sides caressing him.

The interior, in the left nave, contains three altars included within a single architectural composition in white stone from the Apennines. In the niches are the statues of Mary with Jesus in her arms and Saint Joseph. The central altar has a richer altar with fine carving, above which rise two pilasters whose cornices correspond to the columns of the lateral altars. The central part is crowned by an ornament bearing in low relief the figure of God blessing. This work was executed by maestro .

The baptismal font is a stone work from the beginning of the 16th century. Above it stands the statue of Saint John. On the right side of the entrance wall is an oil painting representing the Madonna della Cintura, and in small panels in a recess of the wall are painted scenes from the life of Christ. The stucco decoration and the painting were executed by Orazio Alfani and his son Domenico in 1580. The church is furnished with an organ.

Madonna delle Lacrime

The sanctuary stands on the site of a rural house where, in 1483, an image of the Madonna with Child and Saint Francis had been painted for devotional purposes. On 5 August 1485 the image was said to have shed tears of blood, leading to the construction of the sanctuary, completed in 1522.

The church was built at the foot of Trevi, on the slope called San Costanzo, in 1487, from a design by maestro . The Olivetan monks of San Pietro di Bovara took possession of it on 1 March 1489, although the construction was not yet complete. Maestro Giovanni di Gian Pietro of Venice executed the entrance on the principal façade. He also made the cornice of the façade in 1511.

The interior has a Latin cross plan with a single nave and several chapels. Within the church are funerary monuments carved in pietra caciolfa belonging to members of the Valenti family. The same family commissioned the polychrome marble altar intended to house the image of the Madonna associated with the origin of the sanctuary.

On the entrance wall, to the left, is the fine monument of Benedetto Valenti with the apostrophus date CIↃIↃXLI (1541). In the unframed lateral spaces are frescoes in the manner of Zuccari. On the left wall, between the first and second recesses, is the monument to Subrezia Lucarini Valenti, with the bust of the deceased at the center, a work executed in 1564. Between the second recess and the pier of the crossing is the monument of Monte Valenti, who died in 1588.