Festivals in Spoleto: what to see

Have you thought in which period you will visit Spoleto? The gorgeous city of southern Umbria is not only famous for its monuments and for its splendid remnants that the past – here more than elsewhere – has left intact, but it is also a dynamic city full of cultural events. Art, dance, music and theatre. Those things will not make your visit just as an observation of a fascinating setting, which you can look at but not touch, without really being able to enter the scene and be a protagonist. Spoleto is not just a place to admire, rather a place to live. Every period of the year, not only in the city centre, there are initiatives dedicated to culture and entertainment. In winter, given the climatic complications, everything takes place indoor, inside cinemas and theatres, such as the "Nickelodeon National Short Film Festival", a cinematographic event focused on social issues. If you like music, in April the city hosts many piano concerts and, for dance lovers, the "Città di Spoleto" International Dance Competition. As soon as the weather becomes more lovable, events begin to go outside, enjoying one of the most suggestive frames ever: streets and glimpses of the old town – painted in orange by the summer sunset – dominated by the severe Rocca Albornoziana and the majestic Ponte delle Torri. In addition, in this period the entertainment of Le Quattro Stagioni come to life, which is a summer program of concerts, art exhibitions and theatre performances promoted by the Municipality of Spoleto. And that’s not all, yet.

Born in 1958 thanks to the composer Giancarlo Menotti, the Festival of Two Worlds is one of the oldest and most important cultural events in Italy. Menotti decided to organize the Festival immediately after visiting Spoleto, because he thought that the city's architectural and urban composition could perfectly host an event like that. Within a few hundred meters the city offers locations such as the ancient Roman Theater, the Caio Melisso Theater, the Complex of St. Nicholas, the nineteenth-century Teatro Nuovo, medieval cloisters, frescoed halls of noble palaces and, of course, the enchanting Piazza del Duomo, which due to its shape has nothing to envy – in terms of acoustics and visibility – to the most efficient modern theatre. On the stages of the Festival takes place every kind of artistic performance. It would be impossible to list all the artists hosted over the past decades: Gérard Depardieu, Vittorio Gassman, John Malkovich, Roman Polański, Jeff Mills, Fiorella Mannoia, Luciano Pavarotti, Riccardo Muti, New York City Ballet, Roberto Bolle, Joaquín Cortés, Rudolf Nurejev and many, too many others.

Before you organize the trip in Spoleto, we advise you to take a look at the programming of these events, but if you can not choose the date of stay do not despair. Beyond recurring events, Spoleto offers a rich variety of artistic and cultural proposals every day of the year, for example through its pubs and bars such as the refined “Da Al” food and wine bar, located very close to the old town. Within a very well mixed space between the antiquity of the city and the modernity of its management, you can attend numerous rock or jazz concerts, or participate to several theme nights, and better if you do it in front of a good glass of wine or a delicious typical dish of the city.