"Stop the Car! I Wanna See This!"

Let's Hit the Road

assisi in the distance My friends had expressed a desire to get out of town one day while we were there and I agreed. I thought that a day trip to Tuscany or Umbria would be the perfect thing to do. Hill towns are abundant and the two regions are quite close to Rome. My bud Paolo T. and I traded emails about this day trip and I asked him if he’d be interested in driving us around Umbria on the Saturday we were in town. We’d pay for the rental car and he’d rent it and drive it. He said "Yes." I asked my dear friend Laura if she wanted to come, too and she also said "Yes."

"This is gonna be great!" I thought.

Paolo was at our hotel at about 8:30 Saturday morning. We greeted each other with big hugs and I introduced Jeff and Jenny.

We walked down the street and ended up in front of a FIAT Multipla. These things are great; they pack six people and their stuff into a package whose outside dimensions are about the size of a small Honda. We drove across town to Laura’s place. She was hosting us for breakfast.

"This is gonna be great!" I thought.

We arrived at her flat and she set before us an amazing array of pastries and cookies, coffee and milk, yogurt, fruit and water. This was a really nice breakfast. After a great meal with caffe latte and a little chit chat we all said, "(H)ey! We need to get going!" We all piled into the FIAT and I pulled a parking ticket off the windshield. Paolo just looked at me, the ticket and then gave me that classic Italian shrug.

We started to drive out of town and experienced a typical Roman traffic moment involving a narrow street, a wide bus and an illegally parked car that prevented the bus from turning and thus had all the cars behind it stuck. Paolo surprised me; I thought he’d just drive on the sidewalk or something but he actually backed up and turned around. For all I know that bus is still trapped on that street.

Assisi, Spello and Spoleto

assisi basilica We hit the autostrada and headed north out of town. After about 90 minutes or so we left the autostrada and took a secondary road to Assisi. It was a stunning sight; the basilica is a huge pink edifice at the northern end of town, with the rocca high above everything. We took a quick stop here; the majority of the party had been to Assisi but since we were there the other two should at least get a quick walk-through and a visit to the basilica. We walked through town, through the big gate and into the Piazza del Communale. We took a quick look inside the church that was converted from the Temple of Minerva and then walked to the far side of town to the basilica.

A quick look, back to the car and we got on the road to Spello.

"This is gonna be great!" I thought.

As we approached the town, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. I was looking for this; the Roman amphitheater. There’s not much left and it’s completely fenced off. I told Paolo, "Stop the car! Stop the car! I wanna see this!". He gave me that "You Americans are all crazy" look and stopped the car. I got out, took a look and then jogged down the road a bit, looking for a way in. Everyone piled out and I retrieved the papers I’d printed from RomanSites on this topic. We all took a look. Paolo made his pronouncement:

"It’s just a pile of rocks."

Casual aside #1 - I have no idea what the native Romans think of this stuff; I’ve never asked except when we’ve talked about how difficult it can be living in a huge open-air museum that thinks it’s a modern city. Laura and Paolo both seemed interested; they both read the materials I brought.

I guess my enthusiasm overwhelms their jadedness.

The town was just above us now, so we piled back in the van and drove up the road into town.

Spello

Spello was called Hispellum by the Romans. When Perusia (the modern Perugia) backed the losing side in the civil war that Augustus fought to gain power, he took away quite a bit of territory from them and gave it to Hispellum, since that town supported him. Hispellum became a retirement community for old Roman soldiers. Its Roman roots run deep; about 80% of the town’s buildings have Roman foundations. The walled city also includes 6 Roman gates, although some of them are in better shape than others.

spello street Spello is essentially unspoiled by tourism. They get some, but since it is difficult to reach except by car, only the toughest tourists (or the ones with Italian connections) seem to get there. San Gimignano, for example, is a joke compared to this place. It was quite empty. The time of year helps; November is not a big tourist month anywhere but there wasn’t much happening in town regardless. We saw only a few cars here and there and one or two people in the caffe bar.

The main gate, the Porta Consolare, was in ancient times and is today the main entrance to the town. Within 2 minutes of getting back in the van we were at the gate. Paolo blasted around it and into the town. All I could do was just utter a short "Hey..." but too late! We found a parking space on a side street and then got out. I wanted to go back down and take a look around but everyone else wanted to go up the street.

Casual aside #2: I know that I am the only one who really cares about the ancient Rome stuff. Most people don’t care at all, or if they care it’s more along the lines of "Hey! That Colosseum thing is pretty neat!". So, I wasn’t too upset, but the gate is pretty interesting. Anyway, here is a great shot of the interior of the Porta.

We decided it was time for lunch. We wandered up a small, quiet street and saw a wine tasting room. Paolo ducked inside and came back.

"We can have lunch here if you want. We can taste three wines and have some food. Bread, cheese, other stuff."

"How much?"

"10 000 each."

That wasn’t even the "Paolo Special Price", it was the regular rate.

"This is gonna be great!" I thought.

We went in there and had a great lunch with "Il Professore" and his wife. No English, but a lot of enthusiasm and smiles. We had three different wines and 5 or 6 plates of fresh bread with meats, cheeses and spreads. It was wonderful. We even got a demonstration of the ancient Roman wine press they had in their basement.

After lunch we wandered to the far side of town - stopping for a caffe first - took a look across to Assisi at the belvedere and then wandered back to the car.

Paolo wanted to go to Spoleto, which wasn’t all that far. It was getting late in the afternoon now and the sun was setting quickly. We drove about 20 minutes and found ourselves in Spoleto.

There Was A Man...

Paolo had mentioned this great arched bridge built across a gorge near the town. As we were driving to Spoleto I asked him, "What do you know about this bridge?"

He looks at me for a moment and says, "Do you want the truth?"

"Paolo, I want you to make up the best story you can."

"OK... there was a man..."

I interrupted him, "who was in love, with a beautiful woman..."

Casual aside #3: It seems all stupid tour guide stories start with that phrase. There is a fountain in Rome somewhere that was supposedly built by "a man, who was in love with a beautiful woman" who was the daughter of some rich guy who thought the suitor was a good-for-nothing. So, to prove his worthiness he built this stupid fountain in one night.

I took a walking tour in London one cold December night many years ago that purported to take us to all the haunted buildings we could reasonably expect to see in a night. Our tour guide was a nice enough old biddy, but all of the ghosts were of beautiful ladies and handsome gentlemen. I guess ugly broads and dirty slobs aren’t allowed to haunt London’s Victorians and Georgians.

spello street Spoleto is a much larger town than Spello. It, too, has a long history starting with the Romans. The town can still boast an ancient theater, an amphitheater, several arches and a bridge, all from ancient times.

We blasted into town and immediately began following the brown directional signs to the bridge. We took a right turn and began cruising up a street that was becoming progressively narrower. Eventually we had to stop. Paolo thought for a moment and said, "We should retract the mirrors." So, I rolled the window down and grabbed my mirror. Paolo looked at me and said, "I can do it from here. They are electric." Apparently driving through streets with 3 inches of clearance was a situation FIAT designers took into account; the Multipla actually had power retractable mirrors.

But it still wasn’t enough so we had to convince the two or three cars now behind us to back up and turn around with us. Eventually we found our way through the maze and out to the garden and the car park. It was dark now and we were getting cold. We parked the car and walked to the bridge. The bridge crosses the Tessino gorge and connects the rocca at the top of the town to the hills on the other side. It stands 76 meters high and spans 240 meters. It was built in the high Middle Ages and was originally an aqueduct. It replaced a Roman structure of similar scale.

It was lit pretty well but it was still too dark to take any photos. We walked across it, and hiked up the side of the hill to one of the towers. By now it was completely dark, we were cold, tired and a little hungry. We commented that that woman had to be really really beautiful for that man to build this thing for her. But, it was an aqueduct as well as bridge, proving the Italian adage that we created that night while walking back across it:

"You can live without water, but you cannot live without love!"

We got back in the van and headed back to Rome.

"That was great!" I thought when we got back to the hotel. And something I'll remember for the rest of my life.

Here are the photos.


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