Spoleto is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia. In all honesty, I had never heard of this slow and sleepy city so when we arrived I had no idea what to expect. My first impression was in the form of a very kind woman named Maria. Not only had she agreed to take us into her lovely home-stay extremely last minute (we had jumped on a late train heading toward the Perugia region from Florence with the hopeful plan of finding somewhere to stay en route) but she had insisted on picking us up from the train station at an outrageous hour. Before we knew it, she had tucked us into bed and wished us “sweet dreams”. When we awoke in the morning we were treated to panoramic views of the beautiful Umbrian countryside as Maria provided breakfast on the terrace, serving local jams, bread, cheeses and honey. Not a bad first impression to welcome us into Spoleto!

After breakfast we wandered into the city. We first explored the imposing medieval fortress that sits high above the city. We walked along the walls and marveled at the views below before coming across the 14th century Ponte delle Torri, an ancient bridge still standing tall today. Many photo stops later, we walked down into the city below and wandered the quaint streets and cobblestone alleyways. We came across the Duomo di Spoleto, the dreamy cathedral that is as beautiful as its hillside surroundings and walked inside to appreciate the mosaics and murals. Spoleto was truly a wonder to discover and with a total tourist population of 3 (us) we felt like we had the entire city to ourselves. We finished up the day with a lazy lunch and all the local wine because, as they say, “When in ̶R̶o̶m̶e̶ Spoleto”