Ponte delle Torri, Spoleto

Christina at the bridge

Christina and I planned to hike what, from my research, seemed to be a popular trail to one of St. Francis’ hermitages, yet specifics were pretty vague.  Maurice took us into Spoleto and we managed to find the tourist office.  The woman there gave us a tourist map, which a writer of one of the articles I had found said was perfectly adequate for the walk.  (And yet, with the HQ of the CAI in Spoleto, you’d think we could have managed to get a real topo map….)  We set off about 10:15 from the tourist office toward the bridge.  The bridge!  The Ponte delle Torri (elevation 396 m) is a soaring medieval aqueduct, perhaps on Roman foundations, crossing the deep gorge of the Tessino River.  As breathtaking as it looks on approach, only one side of the pedestrian walkway is open, with a high enough wall on the other side that it wasn’t scary to traverse. Keep reading