Italy - Perfect timing in Spoleto

From chilly Perugia we caught the train to steaming Spoleto. Once again our timing was perfect as we arrived just in time for their yearly wine festival! (*insert clapping here*).

We figured that we would quickly find some accommodation, so after walking to the base of the hill we began to walk slowly into what we thought was the main part of the town. As we got to the base of some REALLY steep stairs a local informed us that the hotels were up near the Duomo (cathedral)… at the TOP of the hill. Now I am talking a 50 – 60 degree gradient. So we got our hiking poles out and made the climb. It was tough, but worth seeing peoples faces as they struggled to go down the hill, but here we were charging up the incline. Okay... maybe we weren't really charging up, but it's my story so I can exaggerate when I want to! (*grin*)

Once at the top we found a hotel which was hugely expensive, but they were kind enough to point us to the much cheaper one a couple of doors down. It was one of the cheapest we had stayed in, but when we opened the windows it had a view across the entire town and surrounding hills. It was so beautiful that we ended up booking for two nights.

With our gear dumped we headed straight for the wine festival. It was only 10 euros each to join in, which included a free (and very large) wine glass with a bag so that we could hang it around our necks (yeah... in case we stopped drinking?!?). We quickly discovered that the Italians do not sell the wine at these events. It is just an opportunity for them to promote the district and vineyards. As such, wine was pored generously into our glasses and was consumed with equal enthusiasm.

The way they had set up the festival was that they had displays set up in a lot of the old town buildings. It was great as we got to see a bit more of the town then one would normally see. Of course our memory is a little vaguer than we would like, but I am happy we remember what we do; especially considering the amount of wine that we consumed. We also had the opportunity to taste the local cheese and salami… although it was a good week before I would eat any of it again. After eating most of our over-stacked plate of cheese, we started walking onto the next location. Ray was carrying the plate and laughed as he said that everyone was looking at the plate of cheese. The next second he dropped it on the ground. Not only was there a look of pure devastation on his face, but everyone really was looking at him then!

The rest of the evening was spent chatting with drunken Italians who wanted to practice their English on us?!? We had a wonderful evening and still managed to find the hotel at the end of it! What an experience!

The next day we headed to the tourist information, which once again was closed. Whilst there we met Rachel who was a Kiwi from Auckland. She was hoping that the tourist office would locate a room for her to stay in, so we told her about the cool hotel that we had found. After showing her the way we agreed to meet up later for dinner as she was traveling on her own and it is always nice for us to meet new people. We spent the rest of the day looking at the Roman aqueduct and walking through some of their woods in order to get better photos of it.

The next day, after a great evening with Rachel, we all started wandering around the old part of town. Ray and Rachel wandered ahead and I ducked into a beautiful old building, which turned out to be the local book archives. The old guy that was in there offered to show me some of the books, so I went and got Rachel and Ray and we headed back to the building. There were jokes of Murderers when he said that he had to lock the doors and windows. He only spoke Italian, so at least he wasn’t aware what we were laughing at.

We spent an amazing hour with this guy. He showed us books that were as old as 1460, which he made me hold for the photos (and I wasn’t even wearing gloves to protect it). We saw books on the History of Spoleto, the first every dictionary which translated Latin to Italian, one on Julius Caesar’s machines and even song books when they only had four line staves (we now use five line staves.) Just amazing and definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

We then hired a car in Spoleto to give us a better chance of staying away from the tourists. Yep… a left-hand drive, manual car to be driven on Italian roads?! We really do like a challenge!