The Hilltown of Deruta; Ceramic Heaven!

Deruta is a quaint hill town in Umbria's heartland.  It is also Umbria's ceramics capital with a long tradition of majolica and ceramics reaching back to the Middle Ages...

Medieval Towers Of Deruta

The little Commune of Deruta sits upon a hill in the Umbrian Tiber river valley, halfway between Perugia, the capital of Umbria and its Medieval rival Todi.  Deruta lies upon Roman foundations, but the remains of this era are all but lost due to the devastation caused by the Gothic Wars in the 6th century when Deruta was sacked by the Germanic Lombards.  Deruta's name actually stems from the Latin word "direpta" which means "sacked."  Deruta had quite the struggle in the Middle Ages. Being halfway between warring Todi and Perugia, meant that Deruta was always a battleground for these Umbrian superpowers and was also an outpost for Perugia during its wars with the Papacy.  If that weren't enough, Deruta was severely hit by the plague in the Middle Ages that decimated the town, reducing its population by half.  Plundered by both the Borgia's and the Baglioni's, Deruta was not left in peace until the 1540's after the infamous Salt Wars between the Pope and the northern Italian states, when Perugia was slapped into place by the Papacy.

Ceramic Anticipation Growing!

With such a tumultuous past, Deruta should have been beaten into obscurity, but something unusual has kept this hill town an artistic gemstone...its clay.  The soil around the Tiber river valley has superior clay for making ceramics, and after the fall of the Roman Empire,  the Early Middle Ages saw the dawn of ceramic manufacturing in Deruta.  The ceramics industry grew in Deruta and hit its peak in 15th and 16th century.
There are several ruins of old kilns scattered amongst the circa 1300's buildings of Deruta, and it seems that every shop on the main drag sells pottery.  In fact, there are over 200 ceramics factories and shops in Deruta.  Nowadays the clay Deruta uses is being imported from Tuscany around Sansepolcro, but it is still fantastic quality.



We came to Deruta for lunch after a busy morning photo and video shoot for our belly dance costuming businesses:  Gypsy Dream and PoppyPants Tribal and the village seemed like a virtual ghost town!  No tourists, no locals, not even a cat roaming the streets; where was everybody?  After wandering around the main drag "Piazza dei Consoli" looking for an open restaurant, we decided to ask for food recommendations in a ceramics shop.  The main theme in this shop was beautiful red poppies, and the work was amazing.  The owner was very kind and pointed us to the only open restaurant in the "Centro Storico" or the old town-Taverna del Gusto.  It seems that right after Christmas Deruta goes into a bit of a hibernation period because there are not many foreign tourists around.  We poked our head in at the tiny taverna and asked for a table; it would be at least a 45-minute wait.  No problem, we can do A LOT of shopping in 45 minutes!

Reindeers In Piazza Dei Consoli

Hunting For Pottery

Raphael's Dragon

Filing past all the closed ceramics shops along Piazza dei Consoli made me realize that our choices to purchase the famous Deruta style ceramics may be quite limited today.  Many of the ceramic shops seem to have an artistic theme such as the poppies in the shop we had been in earlier. I was in search of the famous "Raffaellesco" style painted pottery which is the trademark of Deruta ceramics.  The Raffaellesco style refers to an early painting by the famous Renaissance artist Raphel depicting Saint Michael stomping on a dragon.  The colour used to paint the Deruta dragons is called "Raphael Blue," and along with the Ruby and Gold colours used in Deruta ceramics, they were a closely guarded secret recipe.  Today Deruta's terracotta factories are all in the valley on the way up to the historical centre, but many storefronts act as painting workshops like the one we found at the end of the Piazza:  Deruta Placens.

Deruta's Famous Raphaellesco Style

Deruta Placens is a Mother and Daughter team that has two stores in the historical centre and a laboratorio or factory at the foot of town making the pottery.  The store we were in was near the fountain in the piazza, and it was chalk full of the most beautiful hand-painted pottery!  In fact, when we walked into the shop, the owner was sitting at her desk painting dainty little espresso cups WITH A BROKEN ARM!  That's right, she was so steady with her brush that she could execute the dainty brushstrokes with a cast on her wrist.  Truly unbelievable.  The owner of Deruta Placens (placens is a Latin word for pleasing) told us that she has passed down her painting talent to her daughter as well.  Historically the tradition of ceramics painting is passed down from mother to daughter because the women have smaller hands to the work she told us.  The men were involved with digging the clay, making the terracotta and firing the pieces in the kilns.

Bella Donna Plate

Our Raffaellesco From Deruta

Another famous style of Deruta ceramics is the Renaissance era portrait plates which usually depict beautiful women, but can also be young men or knights.  The main characteristics are the fluttering banderoles or ribbons describing a name or flattering feature; these were super popular in the 1500's.  Plates are still given today to bridal couples as wedding gifts and are stunning works of art.   We purchased our very own piece of hand-painted pottery; a Raffaellesco style plate for our farmhouse dining room at home in Ontario.   My advice on buying Deruta ceramics is to stop by all the local shops and see what painting style you like, you can't really go wrong.  For a great article on how to spot fake handmade Italian pottery click here.

It was now time for our lunch reservation at Taverna del Gusto.  A small family run trattoria is what we were looking for with a lot of ambience, a great wine list and homemade food; this place certainly fit the bill.  Great vaulted brick ceilings and alcoves stuffed with wine bottles, I was getting thirsty just looking around!  We ordered a bottle of Rubesco or Rosso di Torgiano which is a local favourite here.  I had no idea that there are 13 DOC (designated origin controlled) wine areas in Umbria.  These are like quality controlled wine regions like VQA in Ontario back home and guarantee the grapes are grown locally.  In Italy, the DOCG label on a wine bottle ensures the quality of the wine is up to world-class standards. 

Torgiano is a small Hamlet a few kilometres from Deruta, and they make the Torgiano Rosso Reserva which is a DOCG wine and the delicious, easy drinking red wine, Torgiano Rubesco.  Torgiano Rubesco is aged for 1 year where the Rosso Reserva is aged for 3 years.  The primary player in Torgiano is the Lungarotti family winery, and they put this wine on the map.  It's a great blend of half Sangiovese, 15-30% Canaiolo grapes, 10% Trebbiano and the rest is Montepulciano and Ciliegiolo.  You may know the Canaiolo grape from some famous blends like Chianti and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.  In fact, the Canaiolo grape was the primary grape in Chianti until a blight hit Europe in the 1850's and wiped out much of the Canaiolo vines in Tuscany; oh the horror-stupid aphids!
The Rubesco is such a smooth drinking wine and is nicely paired with cheese and bread,  tomato sauces and roast meat or chicken.  It tastes like cherry jam, pepper and tobacco (maybe that's from all the tobacco that grows along the vineyards in Torgiano).  😁




The wine went perfectly with our homemade pasta dishes which of course were covered in some form of black truffle; because we just couldn't seem to get enough of the "Tartufo Nero" in Umbria and soon we would be heading north to Emilia Romania which is another food region entirely.  The Rosso di Torgiano wine was so good in fact we thought we would head out to the hilltown of Montefalco on the way back to our AirBnB in Spoleto.  It is said, for every bank in Milan and every church in Rome, there is an enoteca in Montefalco.  Well, not really but there is a vast number of wine shops with a great selection of wines from all the 13 DOC wine regions of Umbria, including the famous Sagrantino di Montefalco.


Picturesque Deruta was still empty when we left; no locals, no tourists.  But at least we knew where the cats had gotten to...

How Much Is That Kitty In The Window?

Follow me on INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK for daily photos!

The Via Flaminia To Mellow Spello

Spello is a charming little village just 10 km southeast of Assisi. There is no hurry in this town, full of relaxed people that seem to be living La Dolce Vita. Spello certainly put a spell on me!

Roman Arch

We are on the hunt for ancient towns along the Via Flaminia, a Roman road that starts in Rome and ends up in Rimini on the Adriatic Coast. The tiny township of Spello on the hillside of Mount Subasio, just 10 kilometres from the famous city of Assisi, has a laid-back vibe and an ancient history. This town of about 9,000 people was already inhabited by the Umbri tribes before the Romans arrived. It was called Ispellon or Eispellon, which has Greek origins. When the Romans came to settle in Spello in the first century B.C.E,  they Latinized the name to Hispellum.

Portonaccio 

There are many Roman ruins left here in Spello. The ancient city walls, the aqueduct and the "porta" or gates still remain. The five main Roman gates are the Porta Urbica, Porta Consolare (with its statutes taken from a Roman temple), Porta di Venere or The Gates of Venus, Porta dell arche and  Archo di Augusto. These Roman gates are also incorporated into the medieval city wall built in the 1300s. Unfortunately, the walls were knocked down in 1534 by Pope Paul III, and only the gates remain.  The medieval gates are Portonaccio, Porta del Prato, Porta Montanara, Porta Fonteveccia and Porta Sant' Angelo.  That is a heck of a lot of gates for a small town! In fact, you could spend the whole day looking for gates, arches, churches, and aqueducts.

But we were looking for lunch! We found some free parking at the bottom of the hill leading up to Spello. TIP #1: FREE PARKING IS USUALLY LOCATED AT THE BOTTOM OF A HILLTOWN; PAY PARKING IS AT THE TOP. After climbing up what seemed like an endless staircase, we were at the main drag of Spello, Via Giuseppe Garibaldi, which leads to the Palazzo Comunale or Town Hall, on the main piazza in town. The flavour of this part of town is medieval, with the Town Hall building dating back to 1270! The neat little buildings are home to some great coffee bars, gift shops, enoteca and shops selling typical local Umbrian products like pasta, truffle paste, sausage and wine.

Stone Ceiling 

We found a perfect restaurant called Il Pinturiccio in the main square across from San Lorenzo Church.  Il Pinturiccio means "the little painter" and refers to the nickname of a famous Renaissance painter from Perugia, Umbria; Bernardino di Betto aka Il Pinturiccio.  He was a tiny man (hence his nickname), but his brush packed a mighty punch. I have seen his paintings everywhere; Sistine Chapel, Vatican Library, Borghese Gallery, not to mention the Siena Duomo. In tiny Spello, Pinturiccio painted the Baglioni chapel of the Santa Maria Maggiore in 1500. I definitely recommend stopping in to see the glorious frescoes of this Renaissance painter. TIP #2:  Bring some €2 coins to insert into the lightbox to illuminate the frescoes.

Pici With Grechetto di Todi Wine

It was a busy lunchtime; the place looked small and PACKED with people. We thought there was no way to get a table for lunch, but our server took us through the back of the restaurant and into a large banquet room that looked like something out of the middle ages. Stone vaulted ceilings and wrought iron fixtures balanced by dainty chandeliers and arched french doors. We had this gorgeous room to ourselves! Everything on the menu was fresh seasonal, and homemade. I had the most fantastic pumpkin ravioli in handmade pasta, and my friend had pici with black truffle sauce. Pici are thick, hand-rolled pasta noodles like spaghetti, but the dough is only made with flour and water (sometimes with the egg white). Pici originates from the Sienna region of Tuscany, but it is prevalent in Umbrian cuisine as well.

Grechetto di Todi Grapes

Then the wine! We tried to just get a half litre of white wine with our lunch, but this was a restaurant, not an osteria, so we had to buy a bottle. 😉  The famous white wine of Umbria is the Orvieto Classico. We are lucky enough to drink this at home in Ontario. It is that well known around the world. The white wine that we had was called Grechetto di Todi.  Todi is a hill town near Orvieto that grows Grechetto grapes, and the Orvieto Classico white wine is a blend of Grechetto and Trebbiano grapes made in this corner of Italy since the Middle Ages. Grechetto vines come from Greece, and like the Sagrantino red grape, it is a late harvest grape. And like the Sagrantino grape, it is a low-yield variety with high sugar content and thick skins that resist the mildew in late-harvest grapes. For more on Sagrantino, see my blog. Grechetto is often used to make Vin Santo, a sweet dessert wine. This wine is also called Grecco in some places, but it has no relation to the Grecco Bianco wine of Calabria. I found Grechetto di Todi a beautiful light straw colour, and it tasted delicate, fruity and a bit floral, maybe. The perfect day drinking wine; so glad we got a bottle!

San Martino Church

Via Torre Belvedere

The sun was beginning to turn that magic amber colour of the late afternoon, so we thought we would wander out and look around the top of Spello. The street split into two; Via Giulia, which went through an arched tunnel or Via Torre Belvedere. Any road with Torre or Belvedere sounds intriguing but put them together, and you are on an adventure! We hoofed uphill, passing by time-worn churches from the 11th and 12th centuries with fun new takes on the Christmas tradition of Presepi or nativity scene. St. Francis of nearby Assisi started the presepi as a teaching tool for his congregation in the 1200s, and it is just as popular today throughout Italy. Not only the churches and piazzas are home to Presepi, but the residents get into it too; in their front gardens, on the front steps or replacing flower boxes with miniature nativity scenes!

Presepe At The Front Door

Belvedere Of Spello

Finally, we get near the top of the town, and our street merges into Via Cappuccini, where there is a beautiful West-facing belvedere overlooking the valley. You can see Bevagna on the valley floor and Assisi spilling down the nearby mountainside. This is such a nice spot to sit and rest and let the world go by. There is a high stone wall on the uphill side of the Via Cappuccini with a huge castle-like church on it-oh; yes, it's the Capuchin monastery. No bones here, though. This "modern" church of San Severino was built in 1180 on the site of an older church (the first church built in Spello) around the 6th century that was most likely built on a Roman Pagan Temple. In fact, if you have time in Spello, wander along Via Poeta or Via Fonte Vecchio (Road of the Old Fountain), and it leads you to the picturesque Villa Fidelia which was built on a Roman temple of Venus. If you drive to Villa Fidelia along Via Centrale Umbria, you are travelling on the original ancient Roman road of the Via Flaminia! SO COOL!






The Capuchins bought San Severino in the 1500s, and they built a convent up here. It looks like a fortress, but they had the cutest "glitter sheep" along the Belvedere leading up the terrace to their presepe at the entrance! Even nuns love glitter!

Infiorate Spello

Each year in Spello, during the feast of  Corpus Domini (The 9th Sunday after Easter), the Infiorata festival occurs. On the night of the Infiorata, hundreds of people working non-stop to create a mile-long carpet of flowers along the town streets and pictures and mandalas of flower petals in the piazzas! There is then a procession caring the Blessed Sacrament led by the Bishop of Spello over the carpets of flowers. The festival is trendy and is a great time to visit Spello when its gardens are all in full bloom. According to Easter, the festival moves around each year, but it is usually held in June.



With the winter sun warming the stone walls of the Belvedere, it was hard to leave our sunny perch. But the shadows were becoming long, so we decided it was best to make our way back home to Spoleto before dark. Passing by the old remains of a Roman Aqueduct on the way back to the car park, I am again astounded how ancient history is so entwined with day-to-day life here in Italy. When you SEE this continuum of time, you FEEL part of something bigger, part of something important.   You can perceive that you ARE a piece of history. This is why travel is so important to me.

Follow me on INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK for daily photos! #slowtravel🐌

More Wonders Of Spoleto, Umbria

This Umbrian town of 20,000 people is a jewel of Roman ruins and medieval fantasy!  Spoleto is also the host of two world-class music festivals each summer that puts this village on the world stage. But for now, we have the city to ourselves!

Today was market day in the Umbrian hill town of Spoleto.  This was good news because we wanted to pick up our meals for the next two days of our stay here.  Last night we had dinner in "Piazza del Mercado"  which used to be the old Roman Forum in Spoleto.  Spoleto is an ancient hill town that was first settled by the Umbri people and then built up by the Romans.  We figured Piazza del Mercado would be where the public market was held, but all we saw were safety fences and scaffolding around the buildings.  I don't know if there was a restoration project going on or if there were ongoing repairs from last Octobers 6.2 magnitude earthquake.  In any case, it was clear that there would be no market here today.

Down The Scala Mobile

We asked an elderly gentleman who looked like a Spoleto resident where the market was.  He gave us these weird directions that involved "moving stairs" and elevators; he kept saying the market was very far away.  We were so confused!  We were instructed to head to "The Rocca"  which was the giant castle Albornoziana at the top of the town and all would become clear the gentleman said.  So we trudged uphill to the Rocca and saw a sign pointing to the "scala mobile" and headed towards an entrance that disappeared underground.  Buried deep beneath Spoleto, there is a series of moving sidewalks and escalators that get people use to get around this incredibly steep hill town: ALL FOR FREE!  It's so great for people with baby buggies, mobility issues, shopping carts-you can even bring your dogs on the ride.

Scala Mobile System

So the #2 green line tunnel popped us out halfway down the hill on the edge of town.  From there it was a short stroll across the bridge to the market.  This market sold everything; produce, clothes, jewellery, cheap electronics and much more.  We got a bunch of great local produce for the next few days including some delicious walnuts grown just outside the city!  I also bought a toque because it was cold and smelled like snow again.  We did our shopping with the locals and "took a coffee" as the Italians would say; which means slam down an espresso at a local bar.



After our caffeine fuel up we decided to walk up the hill to get to our palazzo via the scenic route. There is a lot of history to see in Spoleto with its Roman ruins, Medieval architecture and fabulous Churches.  Walking through the village was fascinating with its ample amount of arched alleyways and stone cobbled streets.  After the fall of the Roman Empire, Spoleto was the capital of its own Duchy, and there were many palaces for the wealthy here.  Much of the stone and marble the Romas had used to build with, were repurposed at this time.   There are so many beautiful little details that make Spoleto intriguing.

Spoletium's Amphitheatre

Eventually, our uphill meander brought us to this place:  the Roman Amphitheatre built in the early part of the first century.  This 2000-year-old amphitheatre was so well preserved because it was basically buried by Medieval buildings constructed over the top of it; including the monastery of Saint Agatha, pictured here on the right.   The monastery of St Agatha became a prison until the 1800's and now it houses the National Archeological Museum.  The big deal about this Roman amphitheatre is the stage which still has the original marble with an inlaid pattern called "Opus Sectile" which is not mosaic, but inlaid pieces of thinly sliced stone and marble imported from all over the Roman Empire.  The theatre has been recently restored and is one of the ballet and dance venues of the "FESTIVAL DEI DUE MONDI" or FESTIVAL OF THE TWO WORLDS.

Festival Dei Due Mondi

Another amazing venue for the Spoleto festival or Festival dei Due Mondi and the Spoleto Jazz Festival is in front of Spoleto's beautiful Duomo.  This Romanesque Cathedral was built in about 50 years from 1175-1225 after the original Duomo was sacked by Barbarossa in 1155.

Santa Maria Assunta

With its glorious golden mosaics and 8 rose windows on the facade created in 1202, this Duomo dedicated to the Virgin Mary was considered very modern for its day.  I so wished we had time to peek inside because there are amazing pre-renaissance ceiling frescoes by Filippo Lippi, a bust sculpted by Bernini and a letter written and signed by St. Francis of Assisi inside.  There are only two signatures of letters signed by St. Francis in the world, the other is in the Duomo of Assisi.  Lippi himself has a tomb inside the Duomo, but the remains of this great Italian artist had been stolen.  It is a whole other crazy story that should have a movie written about it...or maybe a blog post 😏

Rocca Albornoziana

The sun came pouring out from behind the clouds so we thought this would be a great opportunity to walk all the way up to the Rocca to take in the view of the town.  The Rocca Albornoziana sits on top of Saint Elia hill and was built in 1359 after the whole mess of the Papacy moving to France.  When the Pope returned to Italy, he wanted a series of fortresses built to defend the Papal territories.  The Cardinal in charge of the region of Umbria was Cardinal Albornoz, a tough Spaniard who ordered the massive castle to be built.  Six square towers with 2 internal courtyards and a great wall of defence below it.  This was also home to the Pope's daughter; the infamous Lucrezia Borgia in 1499 when she was made the governess of Umbria by her Dad.  If y'all watch the television series "The Borgias" you will know all about the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and her numerous plots of love and murder.  There is even a story about a secret escape tunnel built under the Rocca that Lucrezia used to sneak her various lovers into the castle.

Ponte Delle Torre From The Rocca

The views from up on Saint Elias hill of  Spoleto, Mountelucco, the Ponte delle Torre and the valley were incredible!  The air was thick with the sweet smell of Ash fires, and a thin blue haze hovered over the church spires.  Somewhere on Montelucco, a church bell began to chime and starts a choir of bells in the town below us.  Noon.  I was hoping to have more time to tour inside the Rocca and to visit the museum of Spoleto inside it.  The Rocca was completely restored in the 1980's after it was used as a prison for almost 200 years.  I figured if the Rocca looks this great after 700 years, it will surely survive until our next visit to Umbria.  For now, adventure (and lunch) calls us North towards Assisi to explore more Roman hill towns on the Via Flaminia!

Follow me on INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK for daily photos!