April 29: Perugia to Spoleto

Previous day: April 28: Perugia

Today, we leave Perugia for Spoleto, the first stop on our hiking tour. We'll be staying for only one night, at the Palazzo Dragoni.

Today was mostly a travel day. We walked down the stairs to the mini-Metro and got to the train station with minimal fuss, and none of the drama of our first day. Which was a relief, as I’d been primed to do the Plan A/Plan B thing in case it became necessary in the face of thieves, muggers, and other unpleasantness. On the minus side, a certain paranoia about being a potential target is an unpleasant reminder of how lucky we are where we live in not having to worry about such things. On the plus side, trying to be situationally aware to head off any unpleasantness does reveal things you wouldn’t normally notice. Like the guy with plastic flipflops loitering around the platform all on his own? He’s not going to stop, mid-robbery, to put on running shoes and dart off into the distance, so not someone to worry about. The suspicious-looking guy with the full set of luggage? Probably not concealing a getaway bike, folded into the luggage. But the guy with sneakers and not so much as a backpack? Maybe keep an eye on him...
All that being said, we got to the station without interruption and had a pleasant and uneventful train ride to Spoleto, which marks the start of the hiking part of our vacation. A pre-arranged taxi was waiting for us, and took us to our hotel in no time: Palazza Dragoni, about halfway up the large hill on which Spoleto perches, and an easy walk to the main tourist areas. Pleasant hosts, who seemed to me to be a husband and wife. And our room is positively palatial: the bathroom alone is almost as large as our previous room in Perugia.

Today being roughly the halfway point in our vacation, it was time to wash some underwear. I managed to communicate this to our woman host. (Proof of success in a language: people understand you, and reply in their own language. I take that as a compliment, even when I have to ask them to repeat themselves “slowly like for a child”.) We’d arrived too late for the daily laundry at the hotel, and as far as our hostess knew, nothing was open in town. So I spent half an hour doing sink laundry while Shoshanna checked out the local maps and came up with a few ideas about how to spend our day. Squeezed water out of the laundry as best I could, and hung it to dry, which it was doing slowly; today wasn’t particularly hot or dry. Shoshanna shared a good travel tip: after squeezing out as much moisture as possible, put the clothes in a folded towel and stand on them. That squeezes out even more juice. Did that, and it seems likely the laundry will only be moderately damp when it’s time to pack our bags tomorrow.

Bag repacking is a pre-hike ritual, as the company that arranged our tour (On Foot Travel) will come for our bags at 10 AM on each day. Out of the big bags comes the hiking gear (waterproofs and a change of clothing) and into the day packs it goes. Then everything else in the big bags gets rearranged. I don’t want to be carrying my laptop for 5 to 8 hours, particularly if we get caught in the rain—which seems likely in 2 days. So it’s got to go in the big pack, padded so well that it won’t be damaged during transport and handling. This requires much cocooning with shirts etc., and surrounding it with socks and stuff to keep the “roof” (sides of the pack) from falling in. In future, we may need to shift to rolling luggage, with hard sides that protect the contents, but for now, we’re enjoying the mobility and flexibility of big hiking packs and their sense of freedom.

Laundry done, we set off into Spoleto, which is about as steep as Perugia, so at the cost of much stair and slope climbing, you get gorgeous views out over the rolling hills and valleys. It’s a classic Italian landscape, with red-tile-roofed buildings spilling down the sides of the hills, and farm fields everywhere, interspersed with forest. Lovely! Looking forward to seeing it from above in coming days.
We’ve largely burned out on the kind of tourist places that charge admission, so we decided to just see what could be seen from on foot. We stopped first at the big local church, Santa Maria Assunta. The usual bling, and a few nice paintings, but the real showpiece was a letter from St. Francis, safely stored in a reliquary.

Spoleto landscape

Spoleto landscape seen from above.

There was a market day going on, so the streets not far from our hotel were lined with tables selling mostly tourist tat, but a few antiquey-looking things. We stopped for lunch at a local takeout place, and shared a slice of pizza with delicious crust because it had been cooked in a wood oven (tomato sauce, red bell peppers, and black olives) and a Moretti beer while we waited for Shoshanna’s squash flowers with anchovy, fried in dough. The pizza was good enough that I ordered a second slice (this time, zucchini and cherry tomato) while waiting for the squash flowers.

Now suitably armed, we climbed up the hill to the Rocca Albornoziana, which is the fortress that crowns the Spoleto hill. It offers a great view of the surrounding countryside, including a spectacular bridge, the Ponte delle Tori (bridge of the two towers), which connects the rocca with a ruined fort on the opposite side of the valley. Looks to be about 100 m (300 feet) above the valley floor, supported by brick pillars that plunge down to the bottom of the valley. Unfortunately, it’s undergoing some renovations and was closed to foot traffic. It would have taken a bit of courage to cross, given the very low railing and vertiginous drop, but well worth it for the bragging rights.

Ponte delle Torri

The Ponte delle Tori.

We were tired enough to take the convenient public escalators down from the top of the fort to our hotel for a rest before going out to dinner. Did a little repacking, a little e-mail checking and bloggery, and then out for dinner.

Dinner was at Taverna La Lanterna, recommended by On Foot. We shared a tomato and eggplant dish with a local noodle that was flat like tagliatelli, but thinner and uneven in width, suggesting it was cut by hand. It was boiled longer than most of the other noodles we’ve had thus far, so considerably softer and less chewy. A little disappointing, as was the bread that accompanied dinner; we found it more cakey than bready, and not in a good way. My main course (though technically a secondo) was tagliatelli with ragù. It was pleasant, but not as good as what I had in Bologna. Shoshanna then had a huge dish of polenta with tomato sauce and chunks of meat that was quite good. We shared a half litre of local organic wine that had a very pleasant fruity start, but an overly tannic finnish for my taste. Still, it went well with dinner. For dessert, I had a local chocolate cake called “crescionda”, which has a thick mousse-like bottom and a soft chocolate top. Pleasant, but nothing special.

Wandered home, and early to bed to prepare for tomorrow’s first long hike.

Next day: April 30: Spoleto to Ferentillo