20th June 2002, Central Marche
Trip Start
May 28, 2002
1
28
32
Trip End
Jul 17, 2002
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Tolentino, Pollenza, Macerata,Treia,HelviaRacina,Urbisaglia, Italy
Sunday, June 29, 2003
Despite our early start, and optimism about being able to visit all the towns around Macerata in my plan, the drive from Foligno to Tolentino put paid to that. For a start, the road on the map indicates that it is of the same standard as the road from Assisi to Spoleto. Well, they are the same colour on the map. Maybe that just means that it is the main road and doesn't have any relevance to the width or quality of the surface. The road is in many ways inferior to that between Spoleto and Norcia. Given that it is carrying all the traffic between Foligno and central Marche, it should be a better road.
Having said all that, it is scenically, a stunningly beautiful drive. Wide valleys at times, high mountains all around. Very picturesque. Unfortunately I was focused on our itinerary, not on the wonderful countryside, so I became frustrated with the slow traffic. If the road wasn't bad enough, the main problem was with drivers who wouldn't travel any faster than 50 kmph when conditions comfortably suited 90 kmph. Just to compound the problem, there were three towns where there were traffic lights at each end to control the traffic one way at a time, and invariably we would come up benind a truck, just as the lights changed to red. We observed that the locals used this opportunity to whip around the truck as soon as the lights changed to green. Fine if you were confident that no one from the other end was daudling and still coming through mahead of you.
Well into the middle of this section through the mountains, we were trailing a truck. Suddenly a very small car darted out from the left, in front of the truck, travelled 50 metres then turned off to the right into a bar's carpark. The truck slammed on the brakes as the car did the final right turn, and we stopped a metre off the backof the truck. I couldn't see what was happening up front, but the driver of the car hopped out and headed into the bar. Obviosly in response to something called by the truck driver, he just waved his hand dismissivily, and continued toward the door of the bar where an older couple and a young women were standing looking out. With this, the truck driver lept out and ran into the carpark chasing the car driver. The best dressed "truckie" could only be an Italian. Smart slacks and a short sleeved cotton shirt, leather shoes. He could have been going to work in an office. He continued to gesticulate that he was driving a truck and how did this idiot think he was supposed to pull it up when people pulled in front and then propped to make right hand turns in front of him. The car driver again made some smart remark and the next thing, the truck driver is being restrained in the doorway as he tried to get to him.
By this stage, I figured it was time to get around the truck. No one behind us would back up, so I had to back and forth, to stick my nose out into the overtaking lane and ease forward slowly. Nothing coming thankfully, so I pulled out, and everyone else followed. On to Tolentino.
I can't remember if we had ever intended actually entering Tolentino. I suspect that I had singled it out because Castello della Rancia is nearby. After spending an hour and a half there, I can't say that you need any other justification. It was so good we just couldn't drag ourselves away. I'm sure I had always planned this day to be a scouting day; just driving past towns to photograph them and get a feel for central Marche. It turned out to be a sensational day, with such a diversity of experiences, and we had to scrap six towns from the schedule. MROD
We were the only travelers once again. We parked under the trees beside the old moat (now dry), and walked across the bridge into the castle. The square castle with swallowtail battlements was originally a Benedictine Abbey in the 12th century, and transformed into a castle in 1357. It is in the middle of the valley, not on a rocky peak or top of a hill. It has one tower (correctly called the "keep"), which is located at the front right hand corner beside the main gate and protecting the bridge which would have been a drawer bridge originally. The castle was a hive of activity with workmen restoring the Chapel and the Main Hall on the first floor. There were also trestle tables and chairs stacked in the courtyard. Finally, some official looking people began rushing around with folders in their arms. All will be revealed in time.
For a province that doen't seem to attract or promote tourism to any great degree, they are really well organised with a map of the castle and an explanation in English. Unfortunately the museum on the first floor is only posted with Italian explanations. We could at the very least work out the dates, the location of the necropoli around Tolentino that related to the various cabinets, and the odd word helped to explain what we were looking at. This is an archeological museum with displays of artefacts from prehistoric and bronze age to the medieval. One cabinet was of a neolithic skeleton and artefacts lais out as the person was buried. One of the officials with a folder explained that it was a recent discovery and that tonight was to be the official unveiling, we were getting a preview. This was a much more intreresting archeological exhibit than any other we have seen. There were dozens of objects (of different sizes) that couldn't have been anything other than safety pins, right down to the looped fulcrum and the guard to keep it closed. Jewelry of great variety as well as what appeared to be crowns or tiaras.
In the courtyard were glass observation plates that allowed us to see the original foundations and columns of the abbey. The well was located so that all rainwater was channelled by the courtyard to drain into the well.
Then there was the keep. There are six floors including the dungeon. The dungeon has an earth floor with rings and chains fixed to the walls and a display of leg irons and chains. The other floors had exhibits of early firearms (mainly small cannon) and the lords chamber evident by the higher ceiling and the toilet cubicle, wardrobe safe and fireplace set into the wall. On reflection, the toilet could have been a problem if a cannon ball had a direct hit. Being excavated into the walls, it would have only been one stones width, whereas the rest of the wall is over a metre thick. Pitty the lord on the throne when the cannon ball struck.
Plenty of explanations about the construction as well. It finally solved the mystery of many buildings, particularly tall buildings and towers that have square holes all over the walls. These are usually partially blocked up with cement, but it can be knocked out when the holes are needed. The purpose? To run poles through the wall. Planks are then place on the poles, to provide platforms to work on when reparing the outside of the walls. Simple really! This is not to be confused with the other smaller holes in the outside surface of old roman buildings. These were used to fix the marble facings to the brick or concrete core of the walls. When the church stripped the buildings of its marble for their churches, it left the surface of the building pitted with these holes.
An hour and a half had flown by and our itinerary was looking to be under threat. We left the Chienti valley and drove into the hills to the north and Pollenza. It was now well into the high 30's and anyone who didn't have to work, wasn't hanging around in the piazzas or streets. It was close to 1.00 when we arrived and we couldn't believe the traffic in a small town. The penny dropped, everyone was heading home for lunch. We were hot and thirsty rather than hungry, so we stopped anyway. Not without a little drama as we attempted to drive the wrong way down a one way street outside the walls. Wouldn't have been an issue five minutes earlier or five minutes later, it was just that it was "peak 5 minuti". This town is renounded for antique furniture restoration, and I assume they all keep to regular work hours.
All three piazzas open out on the main street down the middle of the town, via Roma. All are used for parking. The first has trees in rows and they had just been pruned. It is probably fairly pleasant, even as a carpark, when in full leaf. The other two piazza are pretty ugly with cars parked haphazardly. I photographed Ches with Verdi. His statue is in the middle of the tree piazzas, and looks like it hasn't been cleaned in fifty years. We have no idea the name of the church in via Roma, toward the end of town where "paradisepossible" notes that "...the sumptuous Church of San Biagio, decked out in perfect noe-classical style, seems to grand fort a place as unassuming as this." San Bagio is certainly impressive, but the smaller church has a very busy fascade. Statues and neo-byzentine mosaics provide more colour than the rest of the town put together.
The only other thing to note is that the walls to the town set the scene for all the other towns around and including Macerata (Mach-er-a-ta). They are ramparts built of bricks.
We had scheduled Treia because "...on a clear day, it offers one of the most complete panoramas of the Marche region...". Not on this day. The heat haze was so thick, even Macerata wasn't photogenic. Again, the guides hadn't stressed how vast and impressive the ramparts are. Built of the usual slim red bricks, they are vast and now incorporate and support houses. They slope away from the road, even as it climbs up one side of the ridge and back down the other. At the very top of the town is a loverly park with plenty of shade trees. From here, the views must be sensational on a clear day. It is also where we were able to photograph Torre Onglavina. I picked the only spot to park at the top of the hill near the park, and the remains of the castle sit on its rock above the road and looking out over the park. Macerata may only have been 8 km away, but it was just a smudge up on its ridge.
It was around 2.00 and time to eat. As luck would have it, we pulled in at Gitano's (Bar-Tabacchi-Ristorante Pizzeria), on the road to Macerata. Just a 1990's building, with nothing going for it other than it is where the locals were finishing lunch, and they served me a sensational "Pollo Grigglia". I was pretty well sold on the daily special, but Ches only wanted a pizza. Problem! They don't fire up the oven till the evening, so no pizzas. She decided on a pasta with a fagioli sauce. She said it was just O.K. For 11 euro, I had a crostini (which we shared, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary), a pasta with wild boar sauce, that was very good, and then the grilled chicken with a side dish of peas and a little diced pancetta. The chicken was a "maryland", with the bones exposed by slicing down one side. Flattened out, it must have had some pancetta layed over it, and was grilled in a grilling rack over charcoal. Turned often so as not to burn. I assume the olive oil was heated with herbs and poured over at the end, plus the usual salt. Just sensational. Here was the grill to match Ches's usual "Agnello Griglia". At the time, I tried to analyse how it might have been prepared, so as to record it all faithfully. As I fell behind in my journal writing, I assumed that I could get all the info. from Cheryl's diary. Guess what? If she doesn't have a good meal, she just doesn't record anything, so here I am trying to reconstruct a meal from three weeks ago. Thanks Chessie. Actually, she is no longer Chessie. What with her skills as a navigator on this trip, she is now "Pigg" as in pigeone.
O.K., so now we don't have a hope in hell of sticking to the itinerary. We might have to just drive past three towns without stopping.
At this point, I need to note that instructions such as "...pause just before Villa Potenza at the ancient remains of Helvia Racina" are not particularly helpful. For a start, Villa Potenza is a town, not a villa, and finally, it is surrounded by dilapidated houses and roads. We came across it all of a sudden, and couldn't find anywhere to park or stop. We did a u-turn and had another try. Another u-turn and another try, and eventually parked around the road away and walked back.
Helvia Racina was the roman town sacked by the Visigoths in the 5th/6th century. The inhabitants fled to the hills and founded Macerata. All that remains of Helvia Racina is the ampitheatre, which is surrounded by a high wire fence. All around is overgrown with weeds, and there was no sign of an entrance. We now suspect that like most of the archeological sites in Marche, they only open in July and August to cater for the Italians holidaying on the coast. Given that we hadn't seen any tourists anywhere in Marche in three days of travel, it wouldn't be worth their while to open before the domestic tourist season. I struggled through weeds and risked life and limb in walking around the fence, which was litteraly in the gutter of the main road. I photographed as best I could.
We drove through Macerata without stopping, which wasn't easy. It must have thrown Ches's navagatorial system out of whack because we then spent some time lost and somehow or other on the motorway heading east. Not to worry (I'm glossing over me having another of my now infrequent hissy fits), we turned off at the Morrovale exit and came back west on the correct road.
S. Claudio al Chiente is still something of a mystery to us. We saw it, photographed it, but don't really know much about it. I suspect that the romanesque church near Spello could be destined for a similar fate. It was a ruin last time we saw it in 2000, and is now being restored. S. Claudio appears to be a conference centre. The church may still be functioning, for all we know, however it is hemmed in by buildings and a hotel that while in sympathetic style to the church, has all the appearances of a very upmarket hotel and conference centre.
It was built on the foundations of a Roman villa, that was origninally part of the town of Pausulae. Between the 5th and 7th centuries, much of the building materials from the abandoned roman town were used to build two churches, one above the other, and enclosed them between two cylindrical towers. In the 11th and 12th centuries it assumed its present shape. That's quoting the "net" blurb. Please explain what it looked like at the end of the 7th century if it was built then????? Whatever, it is quite a striking photogenic building from the outside, from both the front and back. From the back there are three semi-circular walls ands the two towers at the front are visable. From the front, there are beautiful lawns and semi-raised garden bends flanking the paths to the two entrances. We didn't make it inside, but the blurb says both churches are square in shape and supported on four solid central pillars. Having stood for 800 to 1200 years, I guess to descrive the pillars as solid is superfulous.
At this stage, I think we decided that we only had time to drive on to Santa Maria a Pie di Chienti, before heading back up the valley to Abbadia di Fiastra, Urbisaglia and home. We would abandon our plans to visit five towns (and any of the shoe factories near them). Shoe purchases would now hinge on the markets in Montecaterni Terme.
Santa Maria a Pie di Chieni is an absolute gem. If it was in Umbria or Tuscany, it would be overrun by tourists and would feature in every guidebook. Casdogan doesn't even give it a mention, but finds four lines for San Claudio (adding the information that it was restored in the 20th century after long being used as a farm). How could they not find at least four lines for Santa Maria? To quote one of the websites, "...one of the greatest monuments in the Marches.....It is a jewel of the Romanesque art, built in the 9th century and later modified. It is well preserved and is really coherent from a stylistic point of view. It is composed of two floors and has three aisles. Its facade is very simple...." "paradisepossible" adds, "...Once again double-decker in form, this time the upper floor is built within the church at the further end of the high central nave. The 14th century frescoes in the apse above the upper altar are all the more powerful in their striking contrast with the remainder of the simple brick interior."
How did I experience it? It was such an intimate, moving experience. On entering the church, the three aisles lead up to the front of the church, the columns supporting the upper floor above the two side aisles, and the middle open to the high vaulteed ceiling. Two thirds of the way toward the front of the church, all three isles areenclosed under arched ceilings that are very low and reminiscent of the lower church of the Basilica in Assisi, but very small and almost like a cozy little cave.
The upper church consists of the two side aisles and the apse with the frescoes. There is seating in the apse, however the side aisles are screened from the lower church by arches.
Amazingly, they have a spinner rack of post cards inside the front door with an honour box for payment. We bought quite a few cards. My photographs proved to be dissapointing. It is such a dark little church that I couldn't do it justice. My memories will serve me well for a long, long time. What an amazing surprise to see this little gem.
We used the motorway to drive back up the valley to the Macarata ovest (west) off ramp. We drove around Abbadia di Fiastra, but couldn't see much of the abbey. It is behind walls and is heavily screened by trees and gardens. We think we saw a sign indicating either a golf course or a driving range. Not too sure what it says about the area! It is in an area protected by the World Wildlife Fund and apparently worth visiting for its archeological museum (exhibits from Urbs Salvia), frescoes and renaissance cloister. We had to decide between it and Urbs Salvia.
Urbs Salvia is on the plain below Urbisaglia. Now that was a surprise! Founded in the 1st century BC it was destroyed by Alaric in 408 and the people moved to the top of the hill and founded the current town. There seems to be a pattern to the history of Marche towns.
Once again, the archaelogical site is closed till July. nevertheless, we could get close enough to photograph the ampitheatre. Built in the 2nd century AD, it is one of the regions most conspicuous Roman ruins. Trees grow out of the top of the main circular wall, however it seems to be substantially intact. All the arches are still complete, and we suspect that the interior seating is also still in place. We could see in through one arched doorway, and it appeared that the stage is much lower than the surrounding land. It was being set up for a concert.
Several hundred metres further along the road, the archealogical site is still active. A team were packing up tools for the day, and I had a brief chance to photograph the exposed walls and foundations. Sections have protective roofing, and all is surrounded by a security fence. I also think they are starting to excavate the other side of the road as well, so this could just grow and grow into a major site.
Unfortunately much of the information on the internet is in Italian and the translations are torturous. After the event, I think we missed parts of the archeological site. As it wouldn't have been open till summer anyway, there isn't much we can do about it. I will simple insert the translated posting here for digestion at a later date.
insert
We doubled back to take the road up the ridge into Urbisaglia for another fantastic sight. Again the road is ap the outside of the walls and allows a great view of the red brick battlements out of which the houses and shops have grown, They provide the foundations for the houses, just like the towns all over this region.
"paradisepossible" refers to Urbs Salvia, but makes no mention of Urbisaglia. Cadogan indexes the town, but I cant find anything on the page listed. Then I stumbled across:
"www.incastro.marche.it/incastro/urbisaglia/eng/rocca.STM"
To quote the opening paragraph, "...In this case for castle we want to refer to a medieval village surrounded by a wall, towers and fortified gates. The fortress, instead, was only a fortified building exclusively meant for military purposes, to watch over the inside and outside of the castle."
I had no idea if the fortress still existed intact, but I figured we should visit the town to make sure. Does it what! This was our first exposure to a Marche fortress. Completely intact, but closed to the public. Photogenic from fifty angles. It was built by their Lombardian masters in Tolentino, it was designed as the quote above suggests, to defend against outside attack and to exercise control over the citizens of Urbisaglia.
Other exerps talk about the walls of the town also enclosing the original town of Urbs Salvia. God knows what we have missed! If ever we needed convincing that the Marche deserves weeks to explore properly, this one days diverse experiences proves the point. Even if I have to explore it on the internet, I will at least have a feeling for the countryside and the atmosphere. I am determined to build a marche site that will grow as more information becomes available.
We had a gelato. We had granita. We need more and more granita as these 40 degree days continue. Ches sat in the shade outside the walls as I walked down the road to photograph the ramparts and the houses growing out of them. We also sought somewhere to continue our persuit of Marche desert wines. No such luck.
Eventually we had to head back to Assisi. The road to Tolentino is proof positive that tourists don't travel them often, and that they are good enough for local traffic only. Eventually we realised we would have to deal with the same traffic problems in driving from Tolentino to Foligno. I guess the return is always easier than the unknown outward journey. Either that, or I was mellowed by the wonderful day in Marche. I seriously believe that the westward trip is more scenic. This time I wasn't impatient with slow moving traffic. The scenery was just so stunning that I enjoyed the journey. Oh! I forgot about the idiot driving the Volvo, who when we finally overtook a truck, tried to push up my speed, when winding down a mountain, and the woman (driving a large delivery van), talking on a cell phone when overtaking two trucks going down the same mountain.
I thionk we must have arrived home around 9.30 or so. What a sensational day!!!!!!!! Ah Marche!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
