Monteleone di Spoleto

Monteleone sits at 978m on a hilltop in the upper Nera valley, the upper extension of the Valnerina, at the point where Umbria, Lazio and Marche converge. A castle anchors the summit and gives the borgo its defining silhouette, much-rebuilt over the centuries and again after the 2016 earthquake. Below it sit the Chiesa and Convento di San Francesco, and the whole village is compact enough that the fortress organizes the view from almost anywhere within it.

The find that put the town on archaeological maps happened by accident: a local farmer ploughing a field at the Colle del Capitano turned up an Etruscan bronze parade chariot in 1902, a complete biga from the 6th century BC. His family sold it to French dealers for the equivalent of 950 lire, and it reached the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1903, where it is now displayed in Gallery 170 as the most complete pre-Roman parade chariot known to survive, its bronze panels depicting Achilles' birth, his combat with Memnon, and his apotheosis. Monteleone has pursued repatriation since 1990 through multiple legal proceedings, none successful, and the Met's title is now considered settled. The village opened a museum in 2002 holding a full-scale replica alongside the original context of the find, and the town is also a marked stop on a 350-km pilgrim walk running from Norcia, Benedict's birthplace, through Monteleone to Subiaco and Montecassino, with pilgrim accommodation available locally. The 2016 Norcia and Cascia earthquake damaged several buildings in town; the castle and the Franciscan church have been restored, though reconstruction continues elsewhere.

Beyond the village, the Sibillini Mountains National Park lies to the east, the Cascia-Norcia route linking Benedict's and Rita's home towns runs to the north, and Lago di Piediluco is 30 km south. The food follows the Valnerina pattern: strangozzi with truffle, lentils from Castelluccio di Norcia, prosciutto and other Norcineria meats, pecorino, and Sagrantino di Montefalco from 60 km west. Depopulation has been steep, from 1,800 residents in 1951 to 555 today, which leaves a village built for a much larger population now organized around a fortress, a church and a museum that all outsize the number of people currently living among them.