The many historical churches and piazzas serve as stages for the Festival dei Due Mondi and it was at the Piazza del Duomo, with the Santa Maria Assunta cathedral as a backdrop, that we saw the Julliard Jazz Septet strut their stuff. Another night we attended a concert of Byzantine Ecclesiastic Chanting, this time it was held at the beautiful twelfth century Roman church, Sant’Eufemia.
   During your sightseeing excursions, if you come across street stands serving whole roasted pig sandwiches, we suggest you leave all inhibitions behind and tuck into the succulent meat for a cheap and tasty lunch. We stumbled into our first brilliantly tanned whole pig on a skewer at the Piazza del Mercato. This piazza is the central square of Spoleto, and houses the stately Fontedi Piazza fountain, designed by Constantino Fiaschetti in 1746. An ideal way to finish up this walk is to sit at one of the cafés and people-watch while enjoying a couple of scoops of gelato.
   Lemon gelato makes a good palette cleanser for more food to come, invariably more pork. Secondi at restaurants, serving traditional fare, commonly feature roasted pork with herbs, served with a pared-down sauce. You can also expect to see lamb, beef and rabbit because meat is in its prime here and vegetables are curtailed to a minimum. If you want your greens you should make a point of ordering it on the side. Having said that, we did have a spectacular first-course lettuce soup at Ristorante Panciolle. It was a rustic dish, viscous, perfectly salted and brimming with aromatic olive oil.
   If you can pull yourself away from the historical town of Spoleto you can find more edible delights around the region. Olive oil and wine, the two essential things in life that are said

Olive oil and wine, the two essential things in life that are said to encourage the body to live long and healthy, are specialities of Umbria

to encourage the body to live long and healthy, are specialities of Umbria. The olive oil from this area has a nuttier and milder quality than its Tuscan counterparts. Not far from the old town in Spoleto sit olive trees on gentle slopes belonging to the family-run company Monini. These olives go into their Ambile DOP Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a woody liquid-gold oil with a green hue.
   If you are lucky enough to be there during the harvest in November 2003 you can visit the frantoio (olive oil press) and witness the making of olive oil. The beautiful Sophia Loren recently revealed Monini as her staple choice in the kitchen during a television interview. Adding more glamour to boot, the founder’s grandson, now president of the company, Zefferino Monini, races cars and was pretty close to making it as a professional racer. Alas, he chose to run the family business instead and turns his senses of smell and taste to produce a range of extra virgin oils.
   Hand in hand with good olive oil, come the wines of Umbria. The most esteemed wines are the Sagrantino di Montefalco and the Torgiano Rosso Riserva. Montefalco is about thirty minutes away from Spoleto and is worth the scenic drive because you will pass spectacular sunflower fields that bring out the artist’s eye in everyone. Sagrantino is the grape of Montefalco and it was traditionally made only into sweet wines using the passito method. This procedure involves drying clusters of the grapes before pressing, hence giving the wine a rich sweet character. We took a visit to Rocca di Fabbri winery, run by two sisters who were brought up in the family business, spanning four generations. Winemaker Roberta Vitali’s Sagrantino di Montefalco 1998 has a gorgeous nose of leather, dried meats, prunes and dark berries. It has the kind of firm structure that will age nicely. Her Sagrantino di Montefalco Passito 1998 is typical in it port-like dried fruit nose along with hints of warm spices and tons of prunes and figs on the palette. It pairs beautifully with any desserts featuring local fresh figs and will hold up well to chocolate.
   Other wines to look out for while in Montefalco are some of the interesting whites created by small producers. Paolo Bea, a wine with some cult status, produces a delicious white called Santa Chiara. It contains the grapes, Malvasia, Grachetto and Garganega. The 2002 has a complex nose of tangerine skins, nuts and dandelions leading to a palette of earthy quality. Their Sagrantino di Montefalco is also worth seeking out for a rich, mouth-filling red.
   Further north in Torgiano, lies the production of the largest family-owned estate, Lungarotti. These wines put Umbria on the map among some of the most famous wines in the world. Their delicious, champagne method, Torgiano Spumante 1999 makes a great aperitivo. The scent brims of pears and acacia flowers, along with hints of lemon peel; it goes well with the local prosciutto.
   The Spoletinas were certainly proud of the Lungarotti wines. On one balmy evening sitting on the terrace at the family run Hotel Palazzo Leti, Anna Laura Bartocci, a graceful woman with a warm disposition, offered us a glass of the Lungarotti Rubesco to sip. It went down well while we overlooked the majestic mountain, Monte Luco, and the seemingly deep black night surrounding it.
   Limoncello makes another great sip to end the night after an influx of good food. Campania makes the best Limoncello but if you happen upon the local stuff you should try it. The digestivo is made from whole macerated lemons, peel, pips and all. As well as soothing the stomach, it allows you to saver the spirit of Spoleto where life is not rushed and tradition is very much alive. •

Pameladevi Govinda is travel correspondent for Lucire.

Visit Monini

TOP OF PAGE: Old vines at Roccadifabbri. ABOVE RIGHT, FROM TOP: Roccadifabbri grapes. Another view of Spoleto. Ponte Sanguinaro.