We're visiting the town of Todi, which is an amazing medieval gem in the heart of Umbria.
Todi is an excellent example of your typical Italian hilltown, with its grand piazza in
the center, a major focal point for people to gather at all times of day and on into
the evening.
Anchored by the Cathedral at one end and at the other end of the piazza we have some important
civic buildings.
The museum, courthouse, and Town Hall.
It's a grand place for the stroll in the evening, especially at twilight, the passeggiata the
people come out walk their dogs, enjoy some conversation with their friends and neighbors.
And there are many little pedestrian lanes that extend throughout this town that are
great fun to explore.
Todi has got a very dramatic setting, with its old stone houses packed in pretty snuggly
in this compact town that makes it a delight to explore on foot.
Some of the streets here in Todi of course are very steep.
After all it's a hilltop town.
And so there are some of these really steep roads.
But if you just want to stay in the central Piazza area, it is actually quite level at
the top.
Back in the ancient days they did a lot of work for us, a lot of engineering, back to
the Roman times, of cutting the top of the hill and flattening it out for their town.
Because we are on this hilltop, 400 meters above sea level, we get spectacular views
all around, 360 degree range in every direction.
Rather than suburban sprawl with residential communities covering the landscape, the town
is clustered into the dense urban center, and surrounded by farmlands, hills and mountains.
The rural landscape is varied and features farms and forests with the presence of houses
on the valley bottom and cultivation of different products, especially olive trees, they grow
the grapes for the local wines, and they grow a lot of corn the maze for polenta, and a
variety of crops grown all around in this fertile Umbrian countryside, and it's so pretty.
The higher ranges are typical mosaic landscape that alternate dense forest of oaks with horse
chestnuts, and there are some wild truffles.
You can also get some dramatic views of sunrise and sunset from different viewpoints around
town.
That's one advantage of spending a few nights in Todi, taking in the full sweep of day and
night.
And you'll find there are plenty of things to see and do in your visit, exploring the
different neighborhoods, maybe catching street music from a wandering minstrel, visiting
museums and churches, and experience the town in the evening when it really seems to come
even more alive than during the day.
Did I mention food yet?
How about fresh pappardelle pasta with wild boar sauce, and some robust, red, local wine
to go with it.
You will find many excellent restaurants in town.
Now, Todi is off the beaten track of tourists.
Most people certainly have never heard of Todi.
But Italians in the know are quite familiar with this town because it's so beautiful,
this preserved medieval village.
Located in central Italy's Umbria region next to Tuscany, Todi is one of many towns in this
area that are definitely worth visiting.
The town of Todi is fairly small, about a kilometer across, just under a mile, in the
old town, and yet it's big enough to keep you busy exploring it for a couple of days.
You want to spend at least a full day here, maybe two days, walking around, exploring
the little back alleys, enjoying the piazzas.
The attractions of Todi are the city itself, the buildings, the layout the streets, the
people, the lanes, the pedestrian streets, the alleyways, stonework, the arches.
Todi has quite a few of these little pedestrian alleyways.
It's very easy to get into these little lanes.
You just wander.
No cars here just people walking and residences, apartments lining these little narrow lanes.
It's very medieval, it's very ancient in the street patterns.
You don't really need an organized route to go walking on.
You don't need step-by-step directions.
You can get a little map.
It's a handy map that shows the three main streets of town and gives indication of the
little side lanes, and then just go wander and discover it on your own.
You have a number of very ancient arches, and many, many medieval arches throughout
the city connecting the buildings together, as you can see right here behind me.
And then of course, there is the specific attractions, the Duomo, the great Cathedral
here, and the museum, which has a collection of ancient artifacts, and statues, and arts,
so there's something for everybody.
There is also a small theater in town, the Municipal Theater, where they have the occasional
concert, and you might get lucky to stumble in to a performance.
So by all means take advantage if you see there's a concert on, and buy your ticket,
go inside and enjoy the show in this delightful Italian-style, old-fashioned theater.
There are quite a few students in this little old city.
Population is less than 17,000 people, but you are going to run into groups of students
in various parts of town.
They do have five different secondary schools, including the Bramante you see here and State
Agricultural Technical Institute, there is the State Professional Institute For Industry
And Crafts, and a school for accountants and surveyors.
From the few times that I saw the students hanging around together after class, it was
really apparent that there is a lot of social cohesion here.
They don't need social media so much – they've got real social interaction with each other,
kind of that small-town feeling where everybody knows each other, they grew up together, which
is quite refreshing to see in this age of increasing social alienation and communicating
by text and instant messages.
Visitors can also take classes here to study Italian.
There are several small language schools that you can attend as I found out when talking
to an Australian visitor.
How would you describe Todi?
Friendly.
Everyone knows each other.
It's a very cozy little town, lovely.
I've been in Todi for two weeks to study Italian at the language school, a small language school.
I was the only student in my class for the past two weeks.
We been talking at the main piazza, which is a major gathering spot in town, a place
where families can set their kids loose sometimes, who turn it into a big playground or race
track.
When you're here in the off-season, it seems like it's only locals hanging out in the piazza,
and a tourist with a camera is a bit of a novelty for the kids to put on a little show
for.
The businesses here cater mostly to local customers, and many of them have been in place
for a long time.
Such as this quaint little bookshop that we stepped into with two generations working
together.
What's your name?
Sergio Giuseppe.
And?
Padre figlio.
Padre figlio, I see.
Piazza Del Popolo has been the center of town for 2000 years.
Ever since the Romans first built their town, this was the center, their forum, where everything
happened.
A place for shopping, eating out, government functions, just like we do today.
Directly underneath the paving of this piazza are some incredible ancient Roman remains.
It's a huge underground water storage system that is still preserved today called the Roman
Cistern, and it's open to the public.
You can actually walk through them as we'll show you right now.
This is how the ancient Romans maintained a steady water supply for their town.
There are twelve large rectangular rooms made of Roman concrete and rock, covered by barrel
vaults that extend about eight meters high.
The rooms are connected by arched passageways.
The ancient Romans were unable to build their typical aqueducts to bring water in because
Todi stands on the top of an isolated hill, surrounded for miles by lower fields.
But they could bring water into these tanks by surface runoff and from some underground
wells, which also controlled the erosion and stabilized the city.
Part of the system remained in use all the way up through the nineteenth century as a
public water reserve.
Along with these underground water tanks there is an additional three kilometers of underground
tunnels and galleries, dozens of pre-Roman, Roman, and medieval cisterns, hundreds of
wells from various eras.
It's like an underground city and you can walk through a lot of it.
There are guided tours that you can hook onto that will show you these amazing sites.
Twilight is an ideal time to be out walking around, the lighting is very pleasant with
the lingering blue sky, and you've got lights on.
This was filmed in the month of November, and so twilight comes rather early, like 4
o'clock, 5 o'clock.
During the summertime, maybe 10 PM when the sun goes down.
Of course at that time, the main piazza attracts more and more people, old and young alike.
This is a place where families enjoy time together strolling around, and friends have
a conversation catching up on the day's activities.
This is Piazza Del Popolo, and main square of the city of Todi.
On all the sides of the Piazza are the Palace of the Popolo, and the office of the judge.
Okay.
These are the main civic buildings in town.
They are among the oldest public buildings in Italy.
Palazzo dei Priori is a kind of City Hall that houses the municipal offices and the
magistrates court.
Palazzo Del Popolo originally housed the People's Gatherings Of The Communes, like a legislature,
while Palazzo Del Capitano housed, the head of government, like the Mayor.
Along with these government buildings, the piazza has always been the center of social
life in Todi.
And cafes?
Yes, Cafe Serrani on this side.
And the people come out every night?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
At this hour?
Every day, every night.
A short block further south you will find the much smaller Piazza Jacapone.
It's a popular gathering spot for young people during the day and right into the evening,
perhaps because of the gelato shop here, and that central location, right in the heart
of town.
Also there's a bus stop for local and intercity buses here.
Another attraction of this piazza is the four-star Hotel Fonte Cesio, one of the best in town.
It's thirty-six rooms are in a restored ancient building from the seventeenth century, in
a perfect location.
We been visiting Piazza Jacapone and Piazza Del Popolo.
Now were going over one block to the main street of town Corso Cavour for an evening
shopping stroll.
This is what you might call downtown Todi.
The street is not exactly a pedestrian street, but it's pedestrian-friendly.
Cars do come through, but they drive very slowly in this narrow lane, so it's the perfect
place to end your day with a little people watching, maybe get a snack, sit down for
some gelato.
There's a few restaurants nearby.
And there's also intriguing little side lanes that you might want to explore as well.
This completes our first look at Todi.
We're bringing you another movie that will go into more detail on the little walking
lanes.
We will be taking you from one end of town to the other, and we have more videos about
the great towns of Umbria, including Spoleto, Perugia and Gubbio, with more to come soon
in our series on Umbria, in the green heart of Italy.
Look for them in our collection.
We frequently upload new movies so please subscribe to our channel and click that little
alarm bell so you'll be notified.
And if you enjoyed the movie, how about thumbs up, and we always welcome comments down below.
Or if you have questions about the destination, make note and will answer them.
Thanks for watching