Spello

Spello is built from the pink and white limestone of Monte Subasio, which gives the whole village a warm colour, and keeps three Roman gates including the Porta Venere with its twelve-sided towers. Pinturicchio frescoed the Baglioni Chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore between 1500 and 1501, and the floor is laid with Deruta majolica of 1566. For Corpus Domini in June the streets are covered overnight with pictures made from flower petals, seeds and leaves, worked by teams through the night and walked over by the procession the next morning, after which they are gone. The village is famous for balconies and alleys planted with flowers.

History

Ancient Hispellum was a sacred place where Umbrian tribes gathered from the 3rd century BC at the latest, and its sanctuary of Venus was first monumentalised in the 2nd to 1st centuries BC. Pliny calls it a colony founded under Augustus, Colonia Iulia Hispellum, and says Augustus granted it the spring and river Clitunno, 12 miles away (Wikipedia, Spello).

What's there

• The Infiorate - overnight petal pictures walked over by the June procession.
• The Baglioni Chapel - Pinturicchio frescoes over a majolica floor.
• The Roman gates - three surviving gates including the twelve-sided Porta Venere.
• The pink stone - Subasio limestone giving the village its colour.

When to go

April to October; the Infiorate fall on the weekend of Corpus Domini in June, when the village is packed overnight. Flower displays on the lanes peak in May and June.

Before you go

The petal carpets last only hours and the village is extremely crowded for them. Streets are steep and stepped. Parking is outside the walls.

Nearby

Assisi lies north; Foligno is south.

Key facts