Spoleto

Spoleto, 63km South East of Perugia, is less than an hour away, by train.

It’s a quiet, sleepy but beautiful little city that springs to live in summer for the Spoleto Festival, one of Europe’s most important festivals of music, art, dance and theatre.

Kayoko and I visited it in winter, for its Ponte delle Torri. Apart from the usual narrow streets and steep slopes, what stood out is the friendliness of the people there. I guess we could not help comparing our experiences with people of towns and cities we have visited – Assisi, Siena, Deruta and Gubbio.

After a simple meal of strangozzi (the name used for the pasta pici used in Spoleto and Assisi) for me and spaghetti for Kayoko, we walked along the fortress Via del Ponte and around the bend we saw the bridge – Ponte delle Torri. It was a tranquil walk on a quiet Sunday afternoon. The gorge, the bridge’s arches casting shadows against the walls of the valley behind the city … it was breathtaking.

I could sense my headache throbbing away (lack of sleep the night before, plus an impending cold waiting to crash on me) as we climbed higher and higher in the dense forest and hills.

‘’Where does this lead to? What is our goal?’’ Kayoko asked cautiously as we encountered narrow paths and dense foliage. ‘’Keep walking, it does not look too steep,’’ I encouraged.

We came across a little waterfall and she gave a small delighted squeal. We decided to go further up. We finally came to a landing and saw a board with diagrams of exercises, like those in the parks of Singapore. Kayoko laughed, ‘’now we have to do some exercises here.’’ We actually saw one or two joggers pass by.

And the splendid view was our reward, for withstanding the cold and the steep climb. We could not help let out a big ‘’wow’’ and snapped the best shots so far.

When we went down, we found a café and had a hot drink, with the hills and its serenity in front of us. My headache disappeared. Families with kids and dogs strolled past and stopped for refreshment. The crowd seems to thicken, compared to earlier when we first arrived. I guess the people were either still in bed or were having their all-important Sunday family lunch when we arrived.

We headed for the Duomo and two Italian men approached us. They were trying to make friends. I was my usual ‘’closed’’ and cautious self but Kayoko was her usual Japanese polite self.

The men asked what we were doing in Italy and mentioned having just visited Perugia. They followed us to the cathedral and offered to take a photo for us. Kayoko was on the verge of taking out her camera but took my cue when I hesitated and mumbled some excuse about taking the picture later.

Once inside, they continued to hover around us and at one point I wanted to tell Kayoko to deliberately walk the opposite direction but she seemed unperturbed. ‘’How to get rid of them?’’ I whispered. ‘’When we leave, wave goodbye and they will not follow us’’ she suggested.

And that’s exactly what she did with a big smile! I would have just completely ignored them, to avoid trouble and persistent flirts… but she calmly explained, ‘’wave to officially say goodbye…’’

Phew, they did not follow us. I guess my stony silence must have overshadowed Kayoko’s politeness and totally put the two men off.

We spent a long time in a café having hot tea, to warm ourselves, before heading for the train station. Once at the train station, we learnt that our train has been delayed, first by half an hour, and later by a total of 42 minutes.

To avoid shivering, we spent our time at the café at the train station, watching TV and trying to keep warm.

The train finally arrived, and the warmth inside was simply heavenly.