Magione

Magione sits on a hill east of Lake Trasimeno, fifteen kilometers from Perugia. The name comes from the Knights Hospitaller, who built a hospital here in the mid-twelfth century dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and called their convent Maison in their own language. The original nucleus stood on the Perugia-Tuscany route and became the Castello dei Cavalieri di Malta, the Order's fortified base that still anchors the town.

In October 1502 the castle hosted what became known as the Conspiracy of Magione: Cesare Borgia's own captains and allies plotted his overthrow inside its walls. Niccolò Machiavelli, on diplomatic mission for Florence, learned the details and passed them to Borgia, who dismantled the conspirators within months. The Torre dei Lambardi, built between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by the same Gerosolimitani Knights, rises thirty meters above the lower town as a second medieval pole. The vineyards on the surrounding hills lie between 250 and 350 meters above sea level.