After a lot of phone calls to friends and family, I was finally able to put together a good group (14 people plus 2 dogs, the latter mercifully excluded from the phone calls), for a Sunday expedition. We had been warned that a lot of public was expected at the De’Magistris exhibition, so we arrived early, parked under the castle shade and rushed to the exhibition only to find that there was hardly any crowd. The place had the comfortable, sleepy charm of the Italian provincial town: people having their expresso at the bar around the square, greeting each other, promenading the Sunday morning away. After the exhibition we went to the castle. It was rebuilt by Cardinal Pallotta during the renaissance and lived in by the descendent of the same family until the thirties. Actually the Cardinal rebuilt the whole town making it a model of renaissance architecture.
Both the town and the castle are wonderfully preserved and the castle retains a taste of lived in confort, like if the residents had just left for the week end. The castle has a working portcullis that is closed every night but for convenience there is a bell just outside the main door with a sign that invites to ring for admittance.
This small town offers also a large calendar of events throughout the year including historical enactment at the castle. Back to historical towns from Caldarola Back to Le Marche Travel Guide Homepage
|
