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 16^th 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 14^th 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 14^th 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.