Yesterday was a sunny day, perfect weather for a visit the medieval village of Todi where I hadn’t been for years.
From the Porta Romana we walked up to the centre. It is about 20 minutes walking up hill to get to the centre of town. If you are not particularly fit, you may consider driving up.
Todi is a beautiful hill town in the province of Perugia in Umbria. It was first an Etruscan and than a Roman settlement in the Southern Tiber valley. The views over the rolling hills from the Piazza Garibaldi are amazing.
The main square is the “Piazza del Popolo”, the square of the people, which was built on top of Roman cisterns. On this square is the famous Duomo, the “Cattedrale della Santissima Annunziata” dating back to the 12th century. The building works continued for centuries. It is a beautiful Gothic church with a lovely rose window finished in the year 1515 and an enormous fresco depicting Judgement Day, painted by “Faenzone” and finished in 1596.
At the opposite side of the square is the Palazzo dei Priori dating back to the same period as the Duomo, once the palace where the town’s dignitary governed Todi and now home to the magistrates’ court.
The second church we visited was The Temple of St. Fortunato (bishop of Todi). This Gothic church is located on top of a prominent staircase. Inside is the tomb of St. Fortunate but also from Jacopone di Todi who was a known notary in Todi in the 13th century. It is said that he lost his head after the sudden and dramatic death of his wife dedicating himself to penitence and humiliation. At his brother’s wedding he showed up naked with grease and feather’s all over.
Unfortunately we didn’t have time to visit the Tempio di Santa Maria della Consolazione which is outside the city walls and from where you can also start your walk to the centre.
A nice destination for a picnic is the “Parco della Rocca”, a public garden. We had lunch here: the typical Umbrian street food “panino con la porchetta”, a sandwich with roasted pork meat.
Todi has a lot of good restaurants. We’ll have to come back to try one of these and to visit the Tempio di Santa Maria della Consolazione.
– posted by Sylvia van der Male –
Just such beautiful images! Todi is a gem and you’ve presented it perfectly!
Thanks again for your compliments
I’ll be visiting the first two weeks of March 2016 and asking if their are any expats 65 or older to chat with.
Todi is wonderful! There should be expats in Umbria, but where and how to contact them I really don’t know. I’ll inform you as soon as I have some news..