Living in history

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Day Four Rome to Spoleto

We had a relaxed departure from Rome late Friday morning and took the 1.5 hour train ride into the hills of Umbria to the town of Spoleto. We hadn't realized it was the Todi Sainti holiday on Monday (All Saints Day) and had quite of bit of trouble booking rooms here in a hotel. Our plan was to stay in the hotel for two nights and then find an apartment to rent for a week or so.

The old town is beautiful and many places are now being renovated (I can imagine that in the 50's when there were two big prisons in town, that the real estate market wasn't exactly booming...). As usual, the Romans built on prehistoric sites, and then the Catholics built on the Roman sites. And now some of the Roman sites have been dug out and reconstructed.

The old town is on a hill and many streets are very narrow and steep. There are many expensive shops and restaurants here...and the town is filling up with tourists from Rome.

While Bill napped, I visited the Roman theater and museum right (and I mean right) next door to our hotel. I was the only one there...wandering for an hour or so in the sun. Afterwards, I stopped by a real estate office, and inquired (without much hope, since we had found nothing affordable on line) about an apartment. Well, there was one next door...and we move in tomorrow!

Tonight we will go to a free movie, and tomorrow afternoon hike the aqueduct.

Day five Spoleto

Last night we attended a free film and wine reception at a nearby theater. As best we could understand, the event was linked to some kind of social welfare group that dealt with the aged and mental illness. The film was Indian, but dubbed in Italian, and was the story of dyslexic boy and a teacher who helped him. True to the genre, there was a bollywood dance scene, along with real tearjerker moments.

It is cold here at night, but warm in the sun. We may have a few days of rain later in the week.

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Photos

Caesar
Found in the Roman theater next door

Church built in a roman temple
This is next to our new apartment!

Roman arch and walls
This was the original entrance to Spotelium, the Roman town. Our apartment is in the building on the left.

Crypt in the church near our apartment
The church was empty...I found the stairs to the crypt, and then found a light switch, and went down...beautiful!

Inside the theater
This is stillused during the big arts festival in the summer. It was covered up and a convent built on it in the 14th century or so. The convent became a woman's prison til the 1950s. It was then taken down and the theater restored.

A warning sign
This was found at the border of a woods near town: it warns people not to cut or gather wood here, except on days of sacrifice. Penalties involved payment of oxen and donkeys.

Comments

[Susan Frisbee]

Very successful Jon Stewart rally yesterday which I enjoyed via web & tv. Would have been fun to be there! I have a houseguest from Munich (a 5W member who worked teaching in Argentina 6 years) and I am thrilled that we are having gorgeous fall weather here on Cape Ann. Sounds like your weather may be similar. The thing I identified most happily with in your last blog was the luck you had finding apt. because you were there in person. I usually have the same luck now that I can travel in off-season. Aren't we lucky to be able to travel in retirement?!