Citta di Castello
(26/8/16)
It takes about 20 minutes to drive along the back roads from Valliano to Citta di Castello. Assuming you come down the route that leads you to the Bianchini factory (i.e turning right at the end of the white road down from our property), at the point you reach the main road running parallel to the E45 (when you would turn left to go to the Promano supermarket and the bar), you turn right. You can chose to go on the E45 heading north but the back route is quicker.
We parked in Citta somewhere off Viale Vittori but looking at the guide book there is a pretty good car park near the Duomo. But having parked where we did it took about 10 minutes walk to get towards the main square and it is all completely on the level. So it is a good place to visit if you have anyone with any restricted mobility. And being on the level is pretty much a unique attribute for any town we have visited near here.
The Duomo is, well, it is ok. To my untrained eye it did not look anything particularly special. It is worth a visit.
However next door is the Museo del Duomo which has lots of pictures of Saint Sebastian and in one of the first rooms a map of the Diocesan areas of Umbria in the 13th and 14th centuries. We were delighted to see Valliano is marked in larger letters so clearly Valliano was a reasonably important site then. Surprising to think that there were enough people living locally to support a church where we are.
We acquired a couple of the posters for the Museo because they are actually of that particular bit of the map. I will post a copy of the extract from the map with this blog if I remember to do so.
We then walked back to Pinacotecca Communale which is surprisingly hard to find. If you are going to visit Pinacotecca Communale specifically, there is car parking just outside the city walls so it would be about a three minute walk from there. The exhibition itself is well worth a visit. You start by going out to the formal garden area predominately to admire the façade of the gallery. I will do a post on the contents of the gallery another day.
The central square, as you come into Citta, has a not very well signposted pedestrian precinct in effect on the left-hand of the square if you were standing facing the direction which would take you down towards the Duomo. There are lots of surprisingly smart shops down there. The thing about Citta is that it is laid out in a seemingly haphazard fashion. If you do not know the shop is there then you will never find it. So it is definitely worth wandering around, even through some of the back streets to see what you can find in terms of restaurants, shops etc.
(26/11/2016)
Found our way to the Conad supermarket which had been recommended to us. Mid-size supermarket but fairly well stocked in the Castello Centro Commerciale, which is on the other side of Citta di Castello from Promano. It seems to be open throughout the day and has a mix of other shops. It is located in the Viale Bruno. Don’t forget to take some loose change firstly for the supermarket trolleys and secondly for the nice guys who will offer to push your trolley back to the car, unload it and take your trolley back to the trolley queue (in return of course for keeping your Euro coin in the trolley).
We had a lovely lunch in Citta at L’accademia Hostaria in Via di Modello. Very friendly and good food. It is just past the centre square taking the right-hand fork towards the cathedral square and then it is on the left-hand side just as you enter the area around the cathedral. It is well worth a visit.
(16/04/17)
We visited Citta di Castello on Easter Sunday. Parked at the car park just outside the city walls slightly to the left of the cathedral itself as you look at the Centro Storico but it was only five minutes or so walk to the Duomo Plaza.
The plaza itself was pretty much deserted apart from one restaurant and one coffee shop which was open where we had lunch. There was a service going on at the cathedral so we stood to one side and listened to the service for a few minutes. The church itself was completely full and standing room only (as they say on South West trains) so clearly the church was doing good business today.
We then walked up to the main square where there was the Italian equivalent of a car boot sale, lots of equipment/tools/books/old vinyl and general tat. Great fun to wander around it. I bought a CD and two books (art) so a bit of a hit for me at least.
Then we went back up to the cathedral museum to show those of our party, who had not previously visited it, the map of the Umbrian Dioceses in 13th and 14th century. We found that there is actually a bit more to the museum than we had realised the first time round. In Sala 1 the chest lid (built of Silver) was full of fantastic details and the crook (which is the other main exhibit in the museum) has a beautifully fashioned angel supporting the curve of the crook with hand expression which says he could do support all of this with one finger if he was so minded.
Upstairs last time we had only got to the concert room. It is the best of the paintings in there with a lovely Pinturicchio ( the middle picture on the far wall). No signs there to draw attention to the painting but it is quite beautiful. Beyond that there is a corridor off to the left with a few more paintings and some ecclesiastical robes I think. Not really anything of particular interest and then a lift that does not work if you try to call it so you end up turning around and going back out the way you came in.
We had lunch at the restaurant on the left-hand edge of the square to the left of the cathedral (if you are facing the cathedral’s main entrance). We were admiring the irregular windows in the cathedral wall and noticed how many had been blocked up. Probably contributing to the gloom of the interior of the church to my way of thinking.
I am pleased (in a very nerdy and Scottish sort of way I accept) to discover there is a link between St Columba and the bread they serve here at Easter time and which we ate yesterday (Colomba Pasquale).
I tried to visit Santa Maria Delle Grazie which was shut. It does have a very odd double door for the main entrance for which only one panel seems to open.
I also tried to visit San Michele Angelo but both were shut. I stopped in a tiny cappuccine chapel opposite the main Santa Maria because it was being used for a service so I could not do much other than glance round it.
We then walked down to Sant Francesco which was deserted. Pleasant but has a sort of concrete décor that some churches over here have. There is a lovely Rafael hanging on the left-hand wall but sadly it is a copy of the original which was taken by a Napoleonic General and then sold on.
I made the acquaintance of the Italian word “Giganti grafico” which assume means it has been copied in some way. The Cappella Vitelli in the church was done by Vasari with some lovely wood panels down the sides, the one of them is sufficiently blurred to look like a image out of the Karma Sutra. Maybe it was the oysters for lunch.
In Citta everything is small and individual shops etc so I passed a lovely little Galleria De Lata in the Via Del Albizzin. Worth a detour and then found my way back to the music store that I had located a couple of years ago (which is just off Via Sant Antonio and then down the passageway on the right). Very well stocked for playing music rather than buying CD’s etc.
Something to share with you is that I have learnt that the Italian for guitar pic is “guitar pic”. I went in to the shop with my rudimentary Italian and asked if the owner spoke English. He did not. So we had 10 minutes of trying to find the word for the guitar pic before we got to the right word. I guess I won’t forget it again.
I had a very good coffee at the bar, Gelatera de Corso, which is on the your left as you come from the music shop and reach the main square.
There is also a very good book shop in the main square. I can’t remember the name but think it is Libreria Paci. Has some English books if you want, maps and generally worth a visit.
As you come into the main square, and assuming that straight ahead would take you towards the cathedral, if you turn left instead it is a pedestrian area, Corso Vittorio Emmanuele. Lots of little shops along the way. No chain stores anything like that. As I say I suspect you will have to know what is where to know how to enjoy Citta.
Towards the far end of the Corso VE I looked into the Chiesa Santa Maria Maggiore which was empty and pretty schizophrenic as a church. On the left-hand side closest to the main doors there are what looked like chalk drawings in the alcoves. They may have had some rather better drawings on the right-hand side) and then a lovely fresco over the chapel on the left-hand side of the alter. No information of course and the internet just says it is from the 15th century.