Pitigliano, the town of Roman thieves? Well, only according to a legend that traces the name of this southern Tuscan town to two thieves, Petililo and Celiano, fleeing Rome after theft of a golden crown from a Jupiter statue on the Capitoline hill. Legends always bear a thread of truth and at the end of…
What is a cimitero monumentale? As you might imagine, notable funerary monuments highlight a monumental cemetery. Just steps away (literally) from that Lombard architectural splendor, the Basilica di San Salvatore, Spoleto’s mid-19th-cebtury cimitero monumentale merits a stroll. Designed by Spoleto architect Ireneo Aleandri, the cemetery respects his neoclassical style and seems to be stupendous theatrical scenography to highlight the…
On Spoleto’s Cinciano Hill, the Church of San Ponziano, built between the 11th and 13th centuries on an early Christian cemetery site, is dedicated to San Ponziano of Roman Spoletium said to have been martyred during the reign of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180). Patron saint of Spoleto, his skull is kept in the church in…
From the 1st-century B.C. to the 4th-century, A.D., the citizens of Spoletium gathered in their teatro for evening pleasures Theatrical, dance and musical presentations again animate the teatro romano which often backdrops Spoleto’s Two Worlds Festival ….and not only. Our family saw the New York City Ballet perform in the Roman theater at the Spoleto Festival some years ago: an unforgettable…
When you arrive by train to Spoleto, take the short walk to the nearby 12th-century Romanesque splendor, Basilica di San Gregorio Maggiore, dedicated to Spoleto’s San Gregorio, priest martyred in 304 A.D. during the reign of Diocletian. The passio (story of a saint’s martyrdom) recounts that after the Saint’s decapitation, Gregorio was buried by a pious spoletina, Abbondanza, close…
Renowned historian and archaeologist, Giuseppe Sordini has deemed Spoleto’s Basilica di San Salvatore “maggiore monumento spoletino dell’antichità,” that is, Spoleto’s greatest monument to antiquity. In fact, although its exact origins are unknown, the Basilica is clearly a stunning building of the Early Christian period, and one of Umbria’s rarest and most important testimonies of ecclesiastical architecture…
When the 28-year-old Lord Byron was in Spoleto in 1816, he was captivated by the Fonti del Clitunno “the purest God of gentle waters! And most serene of aspect, and most clear,..,” Byron’s lauded the Clitunno Springs in his narrative poem, “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.” Over the centuries, poets had sung the beauty of the Fonti del Clitunno, from Virgil…
Spoleto’s Piazza del Mercato (Market Square) was once site of the forum of Roman Spoletium. A narrow street leading out the square is flanked by the medieval botteghe (shops) with arched doorways and stone display counters now holding flowering plants: In one of the shops at the end of the street, a sign on the wall lets visitors know…
As she opened the cloister door so that we could return into the church, I asked Suora Giacinta how many sisters lived in her Montefalco Augustinian cloistered convent, “Ten,” she told me,” and and added with a wink and a twinkle as she pointed to herself, “…..and I am the youngest.” She’s a sprightly ninety…
Spoleto’s Church of Sant’Eufemia has been aptly described as “a jewel of a church, situated inside the courtyard of archbishop’s palace and inspiring a profound sense of welcome, fascinating us with its sobriety and the purity of its unadulterated Romanesque style.” When you enter into the Church of Sant’Eufemia in Spoleto, you’re entering into the…