Guides to the area
Spoleto
Spoleto has been Roman, Lombard and papal, and in summer it becomes the city of the Festival dei Due Mondi. This walk starts from the top, from the Rocca and the bridge over the gorge, and comes slowly down towards the Roman town: the Cathedral, the house of an emperor's mother, the theatre.
Distance from the Casale
50 minutes.
Parking
La Posterna: moving walkways and lifts take you to the centre and to the Rocca.
How long
Half a day; the whole day with the Rocca and the museums.
Tips
The Ponte delle Torri can be crossed at any time. Between June and July there is the Festival: lots of people.
The Rocca Albornoziana
At the top of the town, on the Sant'Elia hill
The fortress that dominates Spoleto was commissioned by Cardinal Albornoz, who was bringing central Italy back under the pope, and it was built between 1359 and 1370 by the architect Matteo Gattapone, who came from Gubbio. For centuries it was the city's seat of command. Today it houses the Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto, and from the walk around its walls you can see the bridge.
Curiosity
From 1817 to 1982 the Rocca was a prison. That is why most of the frescoes in its rooms have been lost: the rooms of popes and governors had become cells.
The Ponte delle Torri
From the Rocca towards Monteluco
It joins the town to Monteluco, spanning a gorge: over 230 metres long and about 80 high. It was both a bridge and an aqueduct: water still runs beneath the walkway. It is medieval, perhaps built on Roman foundations; scholars do not agree. You cross it on foot, at any time, even at night.
Curiosity
In 1786 Goethe crossed it during his journey through Italy, and noted exactly this: that the structure served as both a bridge and an aqueduct, joining two mountains. And after the 2016 earthquake the bridge stayed closed for eight years: it reopened in December 2024.
Piazza del Duomo
Coming down from the Rocca
You go down a wide flight of steps, and the square opens in front of the cathedral like a theatre. It is no accident: in summer it is the stage for the closing concert of the Festival dei Due Mondi, which the composer Gian Carlo Menotti founded here in 1958. His house is also on the square.
The Cathedral
Santa Maria Assunta
Outside, the Romanesque façade with its rose window and golden mosaic. Inside, the inlaid marble floor, a chapel frescoed by Pinturicchio and, in the apse, the Stories of the Virgin by Filippo Lippi: he painted them between 1467 and 1469, and they were his last work. Lippi died in Spoleto while he was working on them, and he is buried here.
Curiosity
In the Chapel of the Relics there is a letter written in his own hand by St Francis to Brother Leo, his closest companion. Only two autographs of Francis exist: one is in Assisi, the other is this one. And Filippo Lippi's tomb was commissioned by Lorenzo de' Medici: the design is by his son, Filippino Lippi, and the epitaph was written by the poet Angelo Poliziano.
The Roman House
Under the Palazzo Comunale
Under the town hall is a first-century Roman house, with its mosaic floors still in place. It was excavated in 1885 and 1886, paid for by an English ambassador, Sir Savile Lumley.
Curiosity
An inscription found in the excavations, dedicated to the emperor Caligula by a woman named Polla, suggests that the house belonged to Vespasia Polla: the mother of the emperor Vespasian, the one who built the Colosseum. She was born in Norcia and owned a great deal of property around Spoleto.
Piazza del Mercato and the Arch of Drusus
The heart of the Roman town
Piazza del Mercato stands where the Roman forum stood, and it is still the square where the town meets. At its entrance is the Arch of Drusus, the Roman arch that marked the way into the forum.
The Roman Theatre
Piazza della Libertà
The last stop is the Roman theatre, with its semicircular seating still standing. Next to it is the Archaeological Museum, and in summer the theatre goes back to doing its job: Festival performances are held there.
Outside the town
Monteluco
Once across the bridge you enter the woods of Monteluco: an ancient holm oak forest, considered sacred as early as Roman times, with hermitages and convents. On the far side of the bridge starts the Giro dei Condotti, a walk from which you see the bridge and the Rocca together.
San Sabino
A twelfth-century Romanesque church, three kilometres from the town, along the old Flaminia. Here, in 1205, Francis stopped on his way to war, and had the vision that changed his life: he turned back, to Assisi. It is where the story told in the Assisi guide begins.
In practice, from the Casale
When
Between June and July there is the Festival dei Due Mondi: concerts, theatre and dance all over town, but also lots of people. The dates change every year.
And in the evening
You are back in fifty minutes. Dinner at the Casale is served between 7:30 pm and 8:00 pm, by reservation.
Fifty minutes' drive, and dinner ready when you get back.
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