Roma

More Spoleto Shennanigans

The street outside our apartment, where we had this dinner...

Farro salad.

Caprese Salad.

Wild boar pasta.

Luke.

Me, after several glasses of prosecco and now starting the red.

White truffle affogato.

Grappa, to descend me into hell.

My home made bruschetta.

A pigs head in Assisi (but we saw these in a few places). It was a bit like Harry's Cafe de Wheels but just with pig.

One of our lunches I put together.

Another Italian lunch.

Wine, with Luke.

Me with wine.

The apartment.

Assisi

Luke had a day off and so we decided to take a day trip to Assisi, about an hour away from Spoleto. We tossed up between Orvieto (another small town that was built on top of volcanic rock) and Assisi but decided on the latter due to the shorter train ride (38 mins instead of 1.5 hours).

Assisi is famous for being the birthplace of St Francis and St Claire, and so the area is visited by millions of pilgrims every year. Given this it has a definite tourist aura to it, with shops filled with nasty made in china souvenirs. There were also lots of people from various religious orders - nuns, priests, monks. I turned to Luke while we were there and said 'you know, some people would save for lifetimes to be able to come here, and we just do it on a day off'.

The view down from the upper basilica of St Francis.

A fuzzy Luke outside the basilica.

Built between 1957 and 1979, these little bianchina cars had nothing more than a 500cc engine. I think I want one.

The basilica was packed to the brim with pilgrims and tourists. Nuns and priests were everywhere bathing in what was probably a very holy experience for them. Don't get me wrong, I think that St Francis had a few good ideas - living simply and without conflict (he went to Egypt to try to put an end to the Crusades), supported lay preachers, embracing and cherishing others and mission work in the Islamic world - but the place was disgustingly money focused. I could have paid €10 to have mass said for someone. They money tables were INSIDE the church, which detracted from the sacredness of the place.

After visiting the basilica we walked through the streets, stopping for lunch and gelato (although the cakes seemed very tempting).

We finally reached the Cathedral at the other end of town, which was much simpler and tattier than the basilica.

(The font at which St Francis and St Claire were baptised)

Finally we stopped outside the cathedral for some marble coolness before heading back down to the station.

Where Luke flaked...

My Big Brother

I don't think I need to say much about this. Here are a few pictures of Luke conducting the singers through rehearsals for the opera.

The orchestra arrived on the day I left, so these rehearsals were with piano.

Spoleto II

My second day in Spoleto started with a trip down to the supermarket. What a fantastic place! All the pig and cheese and fresh fruit and vegetables!! Whole cured legs of pig for €8.50kg. I would have taken photos but there were no photo signs everywhere.

I spent the afternoon walking around the castle, and then visited the castle itself.

Ponte delle Torre - This aqueduct was built in the 13th century, possibly on Roman foundations. It is tucked away on the other side of the hill behind the castle. The ring road (above) circles the base of the castle and links the town centre to the bridge.

The view of Rocca Albornoziana (built 1360ish) from the other side of the bridge.

Inside Rocca Albornoziana. It was a stinking hot afternoon and yet I still climbed fit up into the castle. It was used for a number of other purposes, including a prison, and so has lost many of the frescoes and artistic detail it must have once held.

Some details have remained.

The view down over Spoleto from the castle.

A statue of St Luke as a winged bull, with book.

I have been fascinated with the visual representation of Lions during this trip. I've noticed it before, but early medieval lions just look weird - nothing like more recent representations.

Detail from one of the pretty frescoes in the castle.

A statue of Mary and Jesus I liked.

Sweaty me doing a selfie in the castle square.

A panoramic view of Spoleto.

The path leading down from the castle (the last 2/3 of it anyway!)

After all this I rushed home to cook the rabbit Luke had bought earlier in the week. I've never cooked rabbit before, but it was very delicious!

After dinner, because it was so hot in the apartment, Luke and I walked the same route around the castle.

There were poppies everywhere on the side of the path.

Luke translating Goethe from German. 

A roman snail.

With my big brother.