
I visited two of the whs sites on oct the 4th. Early in the morning I took the train from Perugia( where I rented an apartment for one week in order to discover Umbria and its wonderful little gems) to Spoleto. This umbrian town turned out to be a true pearl.I immediately fall in love with that fascinating city. After visiting the duomo,the rocca albornaziano,and some sites in Spoleto and strolling through its medieval alleys I had to make a tough decision:Spoleto is a fantastic city which is really worth every minute you spend there and I would certainly recommend an overnight stay as night time surely adds its magic to that umbrian pearl...........earlier this year I had visited Sighisoara in Romania.....hands down Spoleto plays in a different dimension compared with that quite similar romanian counterpart.........I could either spend the enitre day till late evening in Spoleto with my wife or visit the temple of clitunno in nearby Pissignano(a stone's throw from Trevi and its train station).
After some hard thinking I decided to leave for Trevi(by train) and then took a bus to the nearest bus stop of that temple( I still had to walk around 10-15 min to reach the whs).
On the way to Spoleto's train station I first visited the city cemetary and its basilica di San Salvatore( whs site). The basilica is closed to the public.Nevertheless,the interior can be seen quite well through its glass cover which is right behind the open wooden entrance door( daily open till 18.00). The basilica itself is one of the most underwhelming whs sites I ve ever seen and quite disappointing.I took a couple of pics and spent 10 min there,walked again through the picturesque cementary and visited the nearby monastery/basilica di San Ponziano which was far more interesting than the basilica di San Salvatore.
The Tempietto del Clitunno(a church) is only 10-11 meter in length and mainly built with ancient roman material taken from roman sites nearby. . It doesnt take long to discover every inch and every frescoe of the temple,but I for my part found the outside much more fascinating and enjoyed looking at the temple from the outside for 10 minutes....the weather was excellent...sunny...about 25+.
30 Minutes is enough for this whs IMO.The site is open daily till 19.00( tuesdays closed).
Since I didnt rent a car as Umbria is quite accessible with public transport from Perugia ,where we spent one week, I had a tough time reaching the temple of clitunno by public transport.( you cant buy bus tickets on board,only in tabacco shops). I lost more time than I had thought beforehand to visit that whs site.At times one has to make this kind of brutal decisions to visit a whs site. Spoleto,that amazing umbrian town,is worth every minute you can spend there.....both the basilica of san salvatore and the temple of clitunno are quite a waste of time when having the choice of spending more time in Spoleto.
I left my wife in Spoleto for that time; I envied here while visiting the underwhelming whs sites.Admittingly,I would have enjoyed the temple of clitunno more if Spoleto had not been nearby and with the knowledge that I could stroll through its breathtakingly beautiful streets instead of visiting those two whs sites.
As for the basilica of San Salvatore it is not that far away from the first or last stop "Ponte Ponzianina"(for me it was the last stop) of one of the green automatic escalator line(scala mobile),a kind of escalator metro system.Spoleto has 3 lines: green,yellow,and blue.( I had never seen something like this before).If there,try the yellow line,your jaw will drop in amazement.You have to walk around 15 min from that automatic escalator station after you have visited Spoleto.The basicila is also reachable(before visiting Spoleto's old town) from the train station taking the first urban bus to the old town entrance gate and walk from there to the basilica( 15 min walk).
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