Wotae: 04.05.2024
Today is my last hike. I have enough money to spend two more nights in Rome and then it's time for the island (Albarella). Tomorrow I'll continue by train.
Since a train journey to Rome and Albarella is nothing worth reporting, my travel blog ends here. To everyone who has followed me so far, I say ciao. We'll see each other again soon.
I am grateful and happy that I was able to make this pilgrimage. And I would also like to take this opportunity to say hello to Udo, who looked after the house and cat while I was away.
You should pay this city a visit. The old town has a few delicacies in store: the churches offer a lot of things to see, the view over the countryside is fantastic (to the southeast, a wooded hilly landscape and to the northwest, the wide plain and the Apennines with Monte Serano). And there is also a lot to offer in terms of cuisine. Just think of truffles and the Spoleto DOC wine.
Since 1958, the city has been immersed in a cultural spectacle once a year (June and July), the "Festival of Two Worlds". And if you've had enough of the hustle and bustle, you can find beautiful hiking trails right outside the city gates.
The exact background to the construction of the medieval aqueduct Ponte delle Torre is not entirely clear. Was it the work of the Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great (around 500), Pope Innocent IV (around 1300), or was the structure built 1,000 years earlier?
The effect is clear and I stand in front of it, stunned. With a height of 76 meters and a length of 230 meters, this structure towers over all ancient and most modern aqueducts. It supplied the city with water until the 19th century.
If you believe a plaque, Johann Wolfgang Goethe not only praised this building, he even stood on it. You can't expect that from me.
The cathedral is worth seeing, with its rosettes on the façade (the central one stands out in particular), the fresco "Coronation of the Virgin" by Filippo Lippo (1469) and the unusual floor mosaic. Also worth seeing is the church of Sant'Eufemia, with its sparse furnishings and gallery, which to our eyes is somewhat unusual due to the Lombard influence. The church of San Salvatore, an early Christian basilica, also has Lombard elements.
If I were to describe everything I discovered in Spoleto today in more detail, it would go beyond the scope of this page. So I'll leave it at that. Maybe there will be a new blog at some point... And then just about Spoleto?