25 June 2017
It is about a 15 minute drive to get here. You go down towards Perugia and then take the Chiusi road before heading off to the left. It is very close to Torregiano. We saw signs to the wine museum at Torregiano when we were about five minutes from reaching Bettona.
We happened to visit Bettona one Sunday lunchtime/early afternoon. The place was deserted. We parked up against the city walls and had about five minutes walk to the Piazza Cavour. Very little was open. It felt indeed more like a film set than a town. It looked as if the remnants of a food festival with placards around advertising each of the restaurants and their particular dishes. We lucked into the Straccaganasse which was on Corso Marconi. Lovely welcome from the owner and his wife and we had a fantastic starter of ham and figs. Then I had some wonderful chicken, rocket/tomato combo. Coffees. To follow
There were a couple of exhibits which were open, where they have glass fronts across the opening to the church but you cannot actually get in. There were some lovely looking frescos. The main church is very white with a few interesting paintings but my lack of glasses and my wife waiting (not so patiently) outside meant I did not linger. The most impressive bit of the building was the almost complete silence. There was a real sense that the building was almost murmuring to itself just out of hearing.
The museum Bettona on the left just after our restaurant had the great merit of being open but there was relatively little to see unfortunately. Some very odd shaped headstones. Definitely during the midst of life we are in death etc. You will see what I mean if you visit the museum.
The gallery upstairs was, to put it bluntly, awful. Uninspired and insipid, and let us not forget that I would kill for a fraction of the artistic talent that was on display there. One semi-decent Dona Doni. Maybe this would be a place to visit on market day?