Spoleto & Spello

Well today it is overcast but not crazy cold and rain isn't predicted so hopefully that will hold out to be true.

I am going to 2 towns today as neither has any "huge" sights and are mainly just known as pretty Umbrian hilltowns. I guess when you have the Alps in part of your country, you can't call these "mountain towns" as it might seem like an exaggeration, however in the south we would definitely term them as mountains.

I arrived in Spoleto first and, yet again, there was no tourist information at the train station. I had read that you needed to take a bus into the historic center and purchased my ticket from the little convenience store in the station. When I asked the woman at the store which bus to take, she said she didn't know and it wasn't because she didn't speak English (she did) it was because she didn't know about the buses. Are you kidding me? You sell bus tickets all day and live in the little town and you have no idea? Seriously?

I finally figured out which bus and took it up to the historic area. The girl at the tourist info center was nice and gave me a map as well and I set out walking with the aid of the map and Google maps- thanks SIM card! That said, Google maps is not the easiest to use here when walking. I find it has a slightly hard time following you for some reason and often there is not signage as to the names of roads, so it is a bit of a guessing game at times. I managed to find my way around and took a nice walk and mainly just caught the outside of the sights and enjoyed the local scenery. Then I decided it was time to head to Spello. I arrived back at the tourist info center and bus stop around 2:00 and it was closed. Closed at 2:00 on a Saturday... really? And no, I don't think it was just for the midday break, although I guess it is possible. From what I could discern, it didn't seem as though another bus was coming for about 2 hours, so I decided to start walking downhill, figuring I'd eventually find the train station and/or someone who could point me in the right direction. Unfortunately my phone battery had died and the map was challenging due to a lack of road signage. I looked around for a taxi but there were none.

I walked. And walked. And walked. And then I walked some more. I met some folks along the way but either they didn't speak English or they had no idea where to go because they were not from the town. EVENTUALLY I came across a hotel and they pointed me in the right direction, which I had actually been traveling already. I finally arrived at a bus stop and 2 buses stopped and said mine would be along in 10 minutes. Finally about :30 later a bus did come and it took me to the train station!

I arrived in Spello and yep, you guessed it, no tourist information. I found someone who pointed me in the right direction, which was basically just pointing skyward and said "up there". I asked if there was a bus and he said "It's not so bad. Just a little way." So I did some more walking. While it was an uphill trudge a fair way, it wasn't so bad and the historic area was very quaint once you arrived there. I basically spent my time in Spello just meandering amongst the cobblestone alleys and seeing the local color. They have an annual contest in Spello in the springtime to see who has the prettiest flower pot displays at their home and I could see evidence of the fact that people are really into it, unfortunately mainly just empty pots at this point. That said, I bet it is gorgeous when the contest is taking place. Almost as nice as mine possibly...

Before leaving the train station in Spello, I had noted what times the trains returning to the town where I am staying were departing this evening and saw that I had a choice between one leaving just a few minutes before 7:00 or having to wait until shortly after 9:00. Since I was going to be moving hotels/towns tomorrow, I decided I definitely wanted to catch the 7:00 train. Well it was dark on my walk out of the town and I got disoriented and my phone was dead and I never obtained a map of Spello as the tourist info wasn't open when I arrived. So once again it was walk, walk, walk and TRY to find someone who spoke English. I found no one but a few old Italian ladies did their darndest to explain how to get there, in detail in Italian. I now know what I must sound like to my dogs... I finally found a young couple and their baby who spoke broken English and they pointed me in the direction: across parking lots, a soccer field, through a neighborhood and over the river, through the woods and almost to Grandma's house. I was walking through one neighborhood when a car quickly drove up next to me and stopped. It was the young couple and they offered me a ride. They must know hopeless when they see it. The train was due to arrive in less than 5 minutes and I really didn't want to have to wait until 9:00 (particularly since I was now out of the cute part of town) so I got in and they drove me to the train station. I gave them my sincerest thanks and ran into the station and bought a ticket. For once I was thankful that Italian trains consistently run late because predictably it was and I made it there with about 4 minutes to spare and caught the train back to Foligno! So sometimes late is a good thing.

Get Outlook for AndroidRead more