Italy Travel And Hotel Guide

If you do nothing else in Spoleto you should take the short achievement out to the Ponte delle Torri , the town’s picture-postcard favourite and an astonishing piece of medieval engineering. It’s best taken in as part of a circular achievement around the base of the Rocca or on the longer trek out to San Pietro . Within a minute of leaving shady gardens in Piazza Campello you suddenly find yourself looking out over superb countryside (blighted only by the busy road way below, but this doesn’t dominate), with a dramatic panorama crossways the Tessino gorge and south to the mountains of Castelmonte. There’s an informal little bar, on the left before the bend, to help you enjoy the views. The Rocca , everyone’s intent of a cartoon castle, with towers, crenellations and sheer walls, was another in the chain of fortresses with which the tireless Cardinal Albornoz hoped to re-establish Church domination in central Italy, a primacy lost during the fourteenth-century papal exile to Avignon. It served until the primeval 1980s as a high-security prison - testimony to the skill of its medieval builders - and was home to, amongst others, Pope John Paul II’s would-be assassin and leading members of the Red Brigade. It’s approaching the end of some fifteen years of restoration, and will house, among other things, a museum devoted to the Duchy of Spoleto, but despite prodding from the EU - who place up much of the money for restoration - no date has been set for the grand opening.

The bridge is a genuinely impressive affair, with a 240-metre span supported by ten eighty-metre arches that have been used as a launching pad by jilted lovers for six centuries. Designed by the Gubbian architect Gattapone, who was also responsible for Gubbio’s Palazzo dei Consoli, it was initially planned as an aqueduct to bring water from Monteluco, replacing an early Roman causeway whose design Gattapone probably borrowed and enlarged upon. In time it also became used as an escape from the Rocca when Spoleto was under siege. The remains of what used to be a covered passageway connecting the two are still visible straggling down the hillside.

It’s well worth crossing the bridge and picking up the footpath , which zigzags up from the left-hand side of the road and then contours left into peaceful countryside within a few hundred metres, giving great views back over the gorge. Alternatively, turn right on the road and make for the church of San Pietro , whose deception beckons from a not-too-distant hillside. If the intent of another church doesn’t appeal you can easily double back to town on the circular Via della Rocca.

Though the achievement to San Pietro is a longish one (2km), it’s pleasantly shady with some good glimpses of Spoleto; the only thing to watch of on the country road (no pavements) are crazed Italians taking the bends too fast. The church would be undistinguished were it not for the splendid sculptures adorning its facade. Taken with Maitini’s bas-reliefs in Orvieto, they are the best Romanesque carvings in Umbria, partly Lombard in their inspiration, and drawing variously on the Gospels and medieval legend for their complicated narrative and symbolic purpose. A particularly juicy scene to look out for includes the Death of a Sinner (left series, second from the top) where the Archangel Michael abandons the sinner to a couple of demons who bind and torture him before bringing in the burning oil to finish the job. Fourth panel from the top (right series) shows a wolf disguised as a friar before a fleeing ram - a dig at dodgy monastic morals.

Tags: albornoz, aqueduct, cartoon castle, central italy, crenellations, dramatic panorama, duchy, fortresses, john paul ii, launching pad, picture postcard, pope john paul, pope john paul ii, primacy, rocca, san pietro, security prison, shady gardens, sheer walls, Spoleto