Still Chasing the Winter Sun

Has anyone heard of Spoleto….?
Spoleto is busy …. traffic busy but not having the charm of Assisi or Foligno. It’s only 12:28 and I’ve noticed shops are closed. I’ve since discovered it’s a public holiday, pleasingly I’ve stumbled across a park on one of the many piazzas named after the infamous Garibaldi. Families abound, a playground and a mandatory merry-go-round. 

I must be on the main strip but I’m staying 11kms out of town in a place called Poreta. Nazzaro who owns the villa I’m staying in tonight is coming to pick me up. How wonderful is he! He said it would cost “un sacco di soldi” (a small fortune) to catch a taxi, “sono ladri” (they are thieves). As I wait for Nazzaro I’m walking the town. Most of you would know that I’m trekking from Assisi to Rome and you may well ask, why am I not walking to the villa? So now is an appropriate time to tell you last Monday as I farewelled my cousin P…. and took the first step onto the train I felt a click in my knee and an incredible pain and you might say that was the beginning of the end. I lived in hope that it would come good and it should, right? Wrong! 

I will briefly say I spent 5 hours in the Assisi hospital being x-rayed and assessed and pronounced unfit to continue on the trek. Rest, rest, rest, anti-inflammatories plus more rest. Let’s not sugar coat it, I felt a range of emotions including guilt for having left Peter at home and selfishness for pursuing my own adventures, BUT, I’m done with those feelings. I’m here now, I couldn’t have stayed in three more diverse locations as I have on this incredible trip and it’s not over yet. The trek is off but in life we must be prepared to be flexible, spontaneous, to roll with the punches, and as they say “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”.

Our friend Massimo who we met in northern Tuscany on our trek of the Via Francigena in 2015 is coming to meet me. Massimo who actually lives in Sardinia is on a mercy mission back to Pontremoli (Tuscany) and has suggested we meet in Pisa and he will take me on a tour of Tuscany for 3 days. He said, “come to Pisa and I will take care of everything else”, well I’m up for that. 

Of course I’ve had to cancel accommodation, train tickets and rearrange my departure and sure I’m coming home earlier than planned but I’m not going to let it ruin a perfectly good alternative adventure.  

I must briefly tell you about Spoleto though. What was I hoping to find here? I stayed inside the walls of the beautiful tourist town of Assisi, then historically war ravaged town of Foligno (a hidden gem). Now here in what might have been a not quite so lovely 60ish feeling place, but just like truffles (and this place is famous for them) you have to dig the dirt to find the gem. 

I made my way to the nearest pasticceria for a coffee and light lunch, I had an hour and a half to kill, this place is rich with pasticcerie. I thought a sandwich to go with coffee but discovered a bustling pastry shop where delicacies, plural, were being parcelled up in quality paper and ribbon and walking out the door faster than you can say Jack Robinson (who is he anyway?). So much to tempt me and generally I think I can honestly say, I let my eyes do the eating and go for the savouries UNTIL…..until I spied a ‘coda di arragosta’ (a lobster tail); not a real lobster but layers of crispy flaky pastry  in the shape of a lobster tail, filled with chantilly cream. It had me at “hello”, marrying it with a rich ristretto coffee, just one mouthful, that’s was lunch! 

My first impressions of this town gave way to increasing warmth as I wondered whether in fact it may have also been impacted by the German efforts during WWII. What excitement when I looked up at the side of the mountain, a castle! No, a fortress, yay! The fortress as it turns out is an historic monument, it’s called the Rocca Albornoziana (Albornoz Fortress) overlooking a large part of the valley of Spoleto. History says that Pope Innocent VI ordered the building of the fortress, to restore the authority of the Church over the area. The Spanish Cardinal Egidio Albornoz in 1362 appointed an architect who was an expert in military architecture, to build the fortress as a defensive stronghold in the heart of the Papal State. As usual these guys start a monumental building program which they never see completed as the Cardinal, died 5 years into a 30 year build. History tells us Lucrezia Borgia, the most fascinating woman of the Italian renaissance who also happened to be the Pope Alexander Sixtus’ daughter and sister to Cesare Borgia lived here. And, in 1499 Nicholas V stayed for a few months in Spoleto to escape the plague of Rome.

All that history aside I’ve had the best time in this town, actually technically my BnB is in Poreta di Spoleto, but close enough depending on who you’re talk with and as it turns out I stayed in Nazzaro’s daughter’s villa. There was a plumbing issue in the room I had booked so I’m staying just down the road in a magnificent villa that has been in the family for 6 generations and believe it or not, my host is “Tina”, ahhhhhhhh, another one. If we’re going with technicalities she was named Santina. She’s absolutely fabulous as is the villa and location and if you’re into truffles as mentioned above you will have landed in truffle heaven.

Nazzaro who has become my very official unofficial driver picked me up at 8pm and took me a nearby restaurant to have dinner, holy cow! A wonderful dinner in a restaurant so full of charm and superb menu, local wines and all evidenced by the full house. 

Dearest friends you absolutely have to come to Umbria and visit these places and stay with Nazzaro at Villa del Cardinale or with Tina in her villa BnB al Civico, I just can’t speak highly enough about this 5 star accommodation and service by father and daughter for a small cost of $122 per night. 

Come to Umbria, it’s waiting for you!

Ci vediamo a Pisa! A presto