The Beauty of Amelia
Our journey for a place to call home
We had to kiss a lot of toads before we found our prince. A lot. Finding the right place to live in Italy requires persistence and grit.
Italy takes an incurably casual approach to staging property for rent or for sale. And when I say “casual,” what I really mean is trashed.
Here is a by-no-means comprehensive list of things we witnessed while touring property: a dead pigeon, fungus, hampers of dirty laundry, a mountain of empty paint cans, a mattress with brown stains on it, funky smells, rat droppings, a dirty clawfoot bathtub with one claw missing, and a bottle of lube.
The whole property thing here is sort of “come as you are.” Real estate photos on actual real estate websites reveal cluttered rooms, personal effects left in plain sight, weird photos (i.e. unremarkable doorknobs), out-of-focus photos, photos where they use a fisheye lens, albeit improperly, so the room looks “bent” … I could go on.
As an American, I’m used to a completely different approach. My mother is a first-rate real estate agent whose honesty and professionalism should be an industry standard; my cousin takes stunning photos of houses that have been staged for sale. When my son recently sold his house, professional cleaners scoured every last speck of sticky dust off metal blinds and ceiling fans. It was expected.
The day my boyfriend John and I discovered what is now our apartment in Amelia, things were no different here than what we’d come to expect. The place was crowded with mismatched furniture. But nothing could blind us to the obvious beauty of frescoed ceilings painted hundreds of years ago. So, too, the terracotta floors, which are rich and warm and inviting to the feet. But it was Amelia itself that captured our imaginations. It’s the oldest medieval hilltop village in Umbria—some say it’s older than Rome itself.
The limestone walls encircling the city run about 720 meters and are 3.5 meters thick. There are four ancient gates, Posterola, Porta Leone, Porta della Valle, but the main entrance is Porta Romana. The minute you walk beneath it, you enter one of the best preserved medieval cities in Italy.
Amelia has but one direction: up. At its highest point, which is where Amelia Cathedral is, you’re over four-hundred meters above the valley floor. The panoramic views of Umbria are worth it. Yes, your heart will be pounding out of your chest from the climb. Yes, your boyfriend will say something like, “Wow, is your face flushed.” Yes, you’ll want to pinch him, but you’ll probably be too tired.
The Ancient Romans constructed an underground complex of ten cisterns to catch rainwater for the village. They’re still there. Just recently, swaths of Roman roads were uncovered, and you can see them as you walk up Via Repubblica.
There’s an organ in Amelia Cathedral that dates back to 1600. The Teatro Sociale, which a private investor is trying to acquire (I am strongly against this, as are many people who are trying to block the sale) not only has magnificent frescoes by Domenico Bruschi, all its antique pulleys, sandbags, and stage machinery are in perfect working order.
Along Via Posterola is S. Magno, a Benedictine monastery for cloistered nuns. I saw a nun of the non-cloistered variety walking down the street today as I was sitting at a café and sipping cappuccino. The sight of a nun no longer terrifies me like it did when I was younger and they made me do things I didn’t want to do, such as recite my catechism or eat tomatoes. In fact, I rather envy them. As the world grows ever crazier, being cloistered sounds like a pretty good deal. Quiet, you know?
In addition to Amelia Cathedral, which is truly one of the most gorgeous I have ever beheld, Amelia boasts the Church of San Francisco, built in 1287 and added on to later. Also the Church of Saint Agostino, which was consecrated in 1288. Yet the hills of Umbria hold other beauties. There’s a planetarium I intend to visit. Also, the Lago Vecchia, or “Old Lake,” where you can rent a rowboat and go exploring. Every year, Amelia hosts an event called the Palio dei Colombi for two weeks in late July. horse riders dressed in medieval garb perform a modern version of jousting called quintain. Contestants fire crossbows at a target. A bullseye releases a caged pigeon.
Sunlight falls gently on Umbria in the summer. It runs a few degrees colder here than where we were before, so if in the winter those vertical streets grow icy, I’ll sled my way down to the parking lot, probably on my derriere. I’m eager to see Amelia in all her seasonal finery, eager to explore her streets with my trusty iPhone and bring back photos to share with you.
Have you ever visited Umbria? If so, I’d love to hear about it. Leave your comments below.