64. A little bit of art and culture in Spoleto

From the 2,000 year old ruins of Herculaneum to the other end of the time spectrum - we found ourselves at the Hotel Albornoz - a palace of contemporary arts.  

We spent four restful and enjoyable days in Spoleto at this lovely four-star hotel.  We have found that the big, fully serviced Italian hotels (pool, restaurant, good wifi and breakfast) like this one, have been less expensive than B&Bs and quirky Italian family apartments.

Spoleto is a beautiful small city and it has hosted its annual Spoleto Festival for around 55 years.  

Festival di Spoleto

The city has made every effort possible to ensure their festival is a success - public transport links from all over Italy and abroad, great arrangements for visitor car parking outside the city centre with kilometres of underground escalators to move visitors around the hilly city, from car parks to venues and from venue to venue.  
The festival takes place in every aspect of the city - in the palazzos, in the piazzas, in the restaurants, in the art galleries, in the historical monuments, in the parks and in the hotels.  Nothing is sacred.  Every asset and aspect of the city hosts events.  

Spoletto is probably about the size of Warrnabool, perhaps a bit smaller.

But back to our hotel.  This hotel does not just hang paintings on the walls.  It has commissioned artists to make their art an intrinsic part of each public area of the hotel.  

Such as this circular brass sculpture that is actually the cover of the fire hose.

This magnificent work of four enamelled copper panels is the door to the dining room.

You pass this lineal work in pastel on the way to reception.

At reception you have these lovely objects to look at (and touch!) as you wait.

Paintings, photographs, sculpture on the way to a little computer room.

Constructed from melted down CDs, this great work is on the wall of the breakfast room where everyone seemed to want to check their email at breakfast.

But this was the one that made you gasp.  They had removed the walls on two sides of the lift and replaced them with glass.  

And for six levels, these male and female acrobats cavort up and down the inside of the lift shaft.

Every room has works of art.  We had this large three dimensional construction plus a gorgeous set of three white, conical table lamps.  You can see one of the small bedside lamps here.

Everywhere you looked there was sculpture.  This circular, semi-inset creation lived on  the grass adjacent to the outside dining area and was a great favourite with the kids.

Even the pool area had installations.  I particularly like this great big red thing; it reminded me of the pool being wrapped up like a gift with a red bow.

The hotel was a monumental credit to its two owners and their fabulous (and expensive) investment in the visual arts and in their city of Spoleto.