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Spoleto for All Seasons
By M.J. Cryan
 Spoleto
is a city for all seasons and for sturdy shoes. Percy Bysshe
Shelley, passing through on his eternal quest for respite
from chill winds and family woes, called it, “...the most
romantic city I have ever seen”. The grey and gold palaces,
the skylines of steeples and medieval towers surrounded by
green forests and olive groves all remains unchanged since
Shelley’s visit - the perfect postcard image of Italy’s
green heart, Umbria.
Traditionally one of the earliest illustrious visitors was
Hannibal who, after his overwhelming victory at nearby Lake
Trasimeno in217 B.C. had his army driven back just outside
the city’s walls. Totila, king of the Goths, invaded Spoleto
in 545 and turned the Roman amphitheatre into a fortress.
Another
prominent but unwelcome visitor was Frederick Barbarossa,
the Swabian emperor, who admired and then demolished most of
the town’s fortifications in the first of his many
incursions into Italy. As Barbarossa’s troops entered
Spoleto they set fire to many of the 100 towers causing them
to explode. A Byzantine icon of a praying Madonna,
Barbarossa’s peace offering to the semi-destroyed town, can
still be seen with its precious marble frame in the apse of
the Duomo.
An
involuntary guest was the beautiful but maligned Lucrezia
Borgia who spent several months of gilded seclusion in the
Rocca as a pawn in her father’s (Pope Alexander VI)
politics. In her short unhappy life Lucrezia passed from one
marriage to another as alliances with different states were
made and broken. Had Shelley’s stay in Spoleto been longer,
he might have been inspired by Lucrezia’s story just as the
tragic tale of Beatrice Cenci caught his fancy in Rome and
resulted in his creation of the fine tragedy, “The Cenci”.
Our
romantic English poet would also have like the Lauri who
lived in the center of Spoleto in the early 16th
century and where a street, Via F. Lauri, recalls their
tale. Because of her beauty, Fiordispina Lauri had many
admirers one of whom ambushed her husband, Filolauro, as he
returned home at night. Hearing his cries from the street
the fearless wife ran out brandishing a sword with which she
killed her husband’s would-be assassin. Questioned and
tortured to make her confess, she remained silent until the
judges threatened to torture Filolauro When the truth was
known, the judges were so touched by Fiordispina’s courage
that they pardoned her.
From Via Lauri to the main market square the
visitor passes under the Arch of Druso and Germanico,
dedicated to the imperial princes in 23 A.D. and one of the
many vestiges showing Spoleto’s stance as an ally of Rome.
The perfect place to enjoy Spoleto and its
surroundings is
Borgo Acquaiura
The
well-preserved Teatro Romano in the middle of town is still
used and near the Palazzo Comunale one can visit the house
of Flavia Vespasia Polla (Vespasiano’s mother) discovered in
1885. On the further side of town are the remains of the
Roman amphitheatre that once held 10,000 spectators, a huge
number for Spoletiuim.
Here
Ponziano, the city’s patron saint, was thrown to the lions
which left him untouched. He then survived 12 days in a well
and a battering with meat hooks, and was left unscathed by
boiling oil before he was decapitated in 175. The
amphitheatre was Totila’s fortress, then a warren of shops
and botteghe but by the 14th century it suffered
the same fate as the Colosseum when its stone was quarried
for the construction of the Rocca high above the town.
The
archives of Spoleto for the year 1254 narrate how the
townspeople were awed by a bright star that appeared above a
well near the amphitheatre. A volunteer descended,
investigated and told how he had found the bottom of the
well littered with bones and the gory remains of abandoned
infants; thus the decision to institute what was probably
the first orphanage in Europe, named Monastero della Stella
in remembrance of the prodigious star.
Spoleto’s
vibrant city life goes on 12 months a year. Winter can be
bitterly cold so the best fuori stagione-before and after
the festival- is early summer and August to October. This is
the time to wander its twisting lanes exploring the nooks
and crannies of the many beautiful churches and monuments.
Via dei
Duchi and Via Fontesecca abound with vaulted storerooms that
have been used as botteghe for over 600 years and when the
ancient wooden shutters are taken down they reveal elegant
boutiques and international level galleries. The gourmet
delights of Spoleto are well known: try the Nera river
trout, the special pasta known as strangozzi, the
local mushrooms, crostini with patè of game and black
truffles and Spoleto’s famous extra vergine olive oil.
The best
after-lunch walk takes the visitor up a steep hill to Piazza
Campello where bull fights were once held and to Via del
Ponte for a close up look at the two monuments that Shelley
called “…those so sublime creations of man”.
The
bridge-Ponte delle Torri- constructed by Matteo Gattapone in
the 14th century and the huge castle-La Rocca-
are among the symbols of Spoleto. The bridge, with its 10
tower-like arches or pylons, leaps 78i meters high over the
ravine to Monteluco hill. It acted as an aqueduct but was
also a sign of Spoleto’s importance, a warning to enemies of
her power. The window half-way across the 230 metres long
walkway is sadly famous as a lovers’ leap even in our modern
day.
Cardinal
Albornoz, the papal governor, was responsible for the Rocca,
built at about the same time. For several centuries it was a
fortress of the Papal States and for a few months in 1860
the walls of the castle rang with Irish ballads when a group
of volunteer soldiers under the command of Major Myles
O’Reilly was stationed there to protect the town from
invasion by the Italian unification troops. A long and hard
battle was fought and lost to the numerically superior
Piedmontese Bersaglieri troops on 17 September 1860 ending
the temporal power of the church in the Umbria region.
Up until 1972 the Rocca was used as a state
prison and tourists enjoying the view from the nearby bridge
would exchange waves with prisoners at the barred windows. A
difficult restoration has released the Rocca from its
centuries of lethargy and restored it to use as a museum and
venue for cultural happenings. |
