Italy 73 - Third time lucky Spoleto and another sosta

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Time starts to slow down after a few weeks in the motorhome. It doesn't feel quite so urgent to rise.

Breakfasts become more leisurely affairs. Croissants, real coffee and cereal and no need to hurry. There is no work today nor tomorrow nor the day after that .

The weather had settled after the storm. The black clouds and the heavy rain had passed over. It was a muggy morning . The overnight rain had cleaned Suzys windscreen. It has not been a bad trip on the fly front. Not many had landed and sacrificed themselves on Suzys windscreen. In the past the screen had been splattered with the dead remains of blood splattered insects. This year not many had been flattened but we have struggled with mosquitoes which had munched their way happily through our legs and arms . I in particular look like a victim from the plague with bites everywhere .

. Autumn is rumbling on. The mornings are dark and the nights are drawing in. There are still flowers about. The pale mauve scabious, the white bladder campion, the pink campions and blue chickory. Many of these flowers are Spring arrivals in Britain and have gone over by late May but here they are still full in bloom and it feels strange to see them. Butterflies, small brown skippers flit from flower head to flower head seeking out the nectar. Small sunflowers are still in bloom. Not the huge plate like heads of their earlier relatives but pretty non the less.

Our stop today Spoleto. Glenn had tried to visit on three occasions but failed once because he felt unwell and the second time as we couldn't find parking. Today was third time lucky we hoped. This time we were armed with Suzy Sat nav who had been primed with directions for the local sosta. We had high hopes.



Sally on the other hand had other ideas. The many tunnels on the road confused her little brain. As she kept losing the satelilites signals she kept going grey and freezing. And then she refused to boot up again and we were left guessing which way to go. Despite the clear open skies she refused to connect and kept saying she was lost. These days we do not carry detailed maps and any we had were not detailed enough to find our way to our destination and for that matter they were hidden in a cupboard out of the way. We had to hunt out quickly Sally number one and try her. She was out of date and didnt pick up road problems but at least she did manage to find the satellites and it was interesting to hear the two of them trying to tell us which way to go. They were not in unison but behind each other by a few seconds. It was like two women who couldnt quite agree what they were trying to say and both felt as if they couldnt get a word in edgeways.

We did eventually find our sosta which was empty apart from a few cars and a couple of motorhomes . I put 2 euro in to the machine for two hours parking. Given Glenn's ability to rush about town and castle I guessed that two hours would be sufficient. Getting into the van he told me it would take two hours to do the Rocca without even touching the town. So back to the machine and inserted another 5 euro for a full day.

First thing get up to the town, As is usual Spoleto is on two levels, the Lower Town the modern bit and the Upper town the Medieval bit. And then there is the third level the Rocca. A lot of climbing then. No - the town have installed an escalator or about 8 of them which take you from the lower town to the storico centro. Now that was good on our legs.

First stop the church which is set in a fantastic setting. STeps down, theatre to the left and medieval buildings to the right . The square was totally devoid of people apart from us. We couldn't believe how quiet it was.

The church is essentially an example of Romanesque architecture with a nave and two side-aisles crossed by a transept. It was built from the second half of the twelfth century after the city had been devastated by Barbarossas troops . A notable external porch and the belfry were added in the fifteenth and sixteenth century respectively.

The façade is divided into three bands. The lower one has a fine architraved door with sculpted door-posts. Two pulpits are provided on each side of the porch. The upper bands are separated by rose windows and ogival arches. The most striking feature of the upper façade is the mosaic. Not the nicest church we have been in but it was interesting in parts.

Next stop - can you guess ? Coffee and cake before we set off on a walking tour of the town. We sat for a while taking in the beauty of yet another Italian hill top town. We miss this in Britain. The weather is too cold to sit outside and we just dont do cafe culture like the Italians and the French.

And then up to the castle which is called both the Rocca and the Albornoz Fortress. It sits on the summit of St Elias Hill overlooking the city. It was built by Pope Innocent VI to strengthen militarily and make evident the authority of the Roman Catholic church in Central Italy pending the return of the papacy to Rome after the 70 years residency in Avignon. Construction work started in 1359 presided over by Cardinal Egidio Albornoz and continued until 1370 under the direction of Matthew Gattaponi. It was a massive structure but also elegant in its design with brick porticoes lined with frescoes sadly now damaged by time, the weather and perhaps the prisoners held here in the past . We were alone in the building and were able to wander at will enjoying it in peace. Notable visitors to the castle were Pope Boniface IX in 1392 , Pope Nicholas V in 1449 during the Plague of Rome. Well wouldnt you want to avoid Rome when the plague was in town? And the most notable visitor was Lucrezia Borgia. Small rooms housed roman remains and artifacts, medieval artifacts and religious paintings and altarpieces. All in all a worthwhile trip and luckily the lift took us down from the castle to the upper town where we got the seven escalators down to where we had left Suzy.



An interesting city, Spoleto is very much of the radar for visitors. We enjoyed our day and it was a third time lucky trip.



Our night was going to be spent in a quiet out of the way campsite in the country before we headed off for our next medieval town tomorrow.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Italy
We always enjoy the frescoes. Glad they are in pretty good shape.