Climbing up the Back of Italy’s Leg

We’ve come about a hundred miles north in a direct line, more to the east than west of the country but have driven about twice that by road in order to see a different part of the Apennines.    We stop for a look at the (with English pronunciation) unfortunately named Norcia which is a delightful little place with the walls still completely encircling the town.  Famous for what seems to be everything you’d want to make from a wild boar carcass plus a lot of things you probably wouldn’t care to, it seems that every other shop is decorated with stuffed boar’s heads.  The town also produces some damn fine ice-cream.  Stinco lies nearby so there’s definitely something about the town names here that strike me as amusing.

On the way north we stopped at a highly picturesque little (yes, hill town, how did you guess) place which had been hit by an earthquake in 2009.  The 18 metre medieval tower collapsed completely and many other buildings were damaged.  Scaffolding is highly visible and some areas are closed to visitors but this village is the most huddled and jumbled set of narrow up and down streets and alleyways I have ever seen.  We found one alley that in some olden day had had a building set partly across it.  H and I could just squeeze through, sideways.   The nearby city L’Aquila was worse hit with over 300 people killed and a large number of people made homeless and settled in tents.  Berlusconi, who I refuse to flatter with the word buffoon “hoped that they all enjoyed their camping weekend”.   

For a mountain walk we choose one in an area noted for wild flowers, planning to leave from a small place called Castelluccio – and it’s another sunny day.  For lovers of pop minutiae I believe this is the real surname of Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons.  The town is said to be famous for growing lentils so there’s no memory here for poor ol’ Frankie.   The high valley floor lies at about 4,200 feet and is awash with sweet-scented narcissi dotted through with wild tulips and gentians.  It’s a really stunning site and sight.  We puff from here to a little over 6,000 feet and although it won’t mean much to those of you who are not into wild flowers we see fritillaries, peonies and a small but select variety of orchids among swathes of other less immediately impressive flora.  The views are stupendous and made more so by the knowledge that we climbed up here.   From a ridge we see dear old Norcia to the west and to the north and east there are snow-capped mountains with tongues of snow filling gullies pointing down towards the valley floor. 

No doubt you will have guessed that Castelluccio is a hill town and it is extremely photogenic with a backdrop of snow.  Nevertheless the population only numbers about 150, so many houses must be either empty or holiday homes.  We read that Italy’s population is falling and I imagine it also has a drain of people from country to city.  What we have noticed is very few towns with new housing being built so I guess the housing stock may be sufficient.  We’ve certainly seen lots of lovely looking old buildings in need of a bit more TLC than just a lick of paint to think that there are bargains to be had in beautiful locations as long as you steer clear of Chiantishire.

We do however go to Urbino for a couple of reasons, one because it is supposed to be lovely and the whole centre is a World Heritage Site.    I don’t think it is that wonderful with a lot of the buildings being brick and not looking that old.  All the other towns have been different shades of warm, mellowed and yellowed stone.  The second reason to be here was to see what is described by some people as “the best small painting in the world”.  Obviously a matter of opinion but it is Piero della Francesca’s ‘Flagellation’ .   It is a lovely piece of work painted on wood in the late 15^th century, still with absolutely brilliant colours and full of allegory and unknown facts.  Who are the people in the foreground, is it the flagellation of Christ, what is it really portraying and when you know that Piero was a mathematician and see the various geometric patterns in the composition, it is a remarkably compelling artwork. 

I wanted to visit San Marino, remembering it from collecting stamps as a youngster so we’ve got a place on what we think is the only campsite in the country.  At 23 square miles it’s said to be the fifth smallest country in the world and is the sole survivor of the Italian City States such as Venice, Genoa and Florence.  It’s also the world’s oldest sovereign state and oldest republic having been founded in AD301.   Shopping is cheaper than Italy and there are some big outlets so following on from AnzioGate and my need to get some clothes we’re gonna take a look.   The old part of San Marino city is fortified and high on what I believe is technically known as a girt great lump of rock and we get a cable car to the top.   Views eastwards across a plain to the Adriatic and westwards across rolling hills and more rolling hills but the town itself is lacking in the atmosphere of many of the Italian towns we’ve visited.  Despite the claim on the tourist literature that San Marino is a ‘peace loving nation’, there are a mighty lot of shops selling lethal looking guns, replica guns, crossbows, knives, axes and sharp edged tools.  I begin to think about van security.   The rest of the shops here are split between jewellery, perfume, expensive looking clothes and leather, interspersed with the odd restaurant.   As Dr Johnson said about the Giant’s Causeway “worth seeing but not worth going to see”.   By the way, we never found the outlet shopping.

 Much to our surprise we realise that there are probably some Roman remains here in Italy but without any planning at all we’ve missed the lot.  One we read about and wanted to see but were in the wrong place by the time we found out is Hadrian’s retreat outside Rome which is supposed to be fantastic.  I understand that he built all the walls himself.   We’ve decided that as they’ve lasted this long they’ll be here when we come back.