In the immediate vicinity of Spoleto there are some beautiful places that are worth a visit.

Monteluco, which you can see by climbing the enchanting road built during the First World War by Austrian prisoners of war. This road carries on from the first part which led to the track joining up with the "Giro del Ponte" (the walking path over the Bridge) created at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The road overlooks the eastern part of the city and is covered by a thick wood of centuries-old holm-oaks considered sacred even back in Roman times (lucus = sacred wood). These oaks are still as green as ever despite periods of negligence and uncontrolled exploitation. Monteluco was a place of pagan cult worship in ancient times. It continued in this tradition throughout the Middle Ages becoming a second Thebaid full of solitary hermitages. Today people still go there to get away from it all.

Hermitical life began there with Saint Isaac in the fifth century and was continued by the Benedictine monks depending on Saint Julian. After moving away from their Benedictine abbey, the hermits of Monteluco formed an autonomous congregation concentrating around the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. It had its own Rule. The hermitages became in time small convents and forbade entrance for centuries to non members. After the Restoration it was still forbidden for women to climb the mountain except on three days of the year. From the sixteenth century on the hermitages were open to lay men as temporary spiritual retreats. Even Michelangelo stayed here visiting the monks in 1556. At the end of the Eighteenth century the government of the Roman Republic expelled the congregation from Monteluco and took over the hermitages. Some of these buildings are now magnificent villas. Other than the Hermitage of St. Francis, within the "sacred wood" at the top of the mountain there are still some grottos where many saints once prayed. In the wood there is also an inscribed pillar which is a copy of the original stone bearing the Lex Spoletina (Law of Spoleto). It dates back to the third century BC and was meant to safeguard the wood. The original is preserved in the National Archaeological Museum. The Law itself is written in archaic Latin but on the pedestal underneath there is a translation. There is also a small cemetery climbing to the side of the mountain just outside the sacred wood. It can be entered from the right side of the square where a wonderful panoramic view of incomparable beauty and suggestion can be admired.

The first nucleus of the Church and Convent of St. Francis, consists in seven tiny and extremely austere cells. It was begun in 1218 by the saint himself next to the twelfth century chapel of Saint Catherine of Siena donated to him by the Benedictine monks of St. Julian. Though altered and restored down through the centuries, it still maintains intact the oratory of the saint with the stone which was his bed, the primitive cells and, inside the small sixteenth century church, works of art and rather important Franciscan memorabilia. At the entrance of the convent, left side, the chapel of St. Bernardino built in the middle of the fifteenth century. In the centre of the cloister there is a well whose water was supposedly made to gush forth from the rock by the saint himself.
Near Campello along the Flaminia road going towards Perugia the fresh springs of the Clitumnus river can be found. The river itself was held as sacred for the ancient pagans and over the centuries has been celebrated by Virgil, Claudianus, Byron and Carducci. They still constitute one of the most suggestive spots around Spoleto, a corner of exceptional delight. The small lake which forms at the springs is crystal clear. Poplars and weeping willows are mirrored in it. The absolute silence which the springs instils makes it a tiny oasis with a delicate, rarefied atmosphere. A truly unique and unforgettable place. A bit further on in the same direction near Pissignano there stands a small fifth century early Christian temple.

It was built in a classical style to imitate the Roman temples nearby because of which it has often been believed to have been the temple dedicated specifically to the river god Clitumnus. It has two levels divided on the outside by strong moulding. The first level can be entered via a simple portal in the facade. To get to the second level you must go up a stair case, through the narrow portico and then enter via one of the two side doors. It is similar in decoration to the Basilica of San Salvatore in Spoleto even though it was built later.

Use the map below to create a custom itinerary to help you reach Spoleto and the Hotel San Luca.