Monteleone di Spoleto: The Etruscan Chariot That America Won't Return

In New York, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there is a gilded bronze parade chariot from the sixth century BC so perfectly preserved it seems to have left an Etruscan workshop only yesterday. The caption reads: from the region of Monteleone di Spoleto. And the Umbrian village, perched at 978 metres on the Apennines, still waits for them to return it.

The Metropolitan's chariot

In 1902, at Colle del Capitano, just outside Monteleone, a farmer unearthed the pieces of an Etruscan parade chariot from the Archaic period, around 540 BC. Sold clandestinely, the chariot ended up at New York's Metropolitan, where it is today the most prized piece in the Etruscan collection. Monteleone keeps a full-size replica in the crypt of the San Francesco complex: comparison with the original is possible through high-quality photographs, and the story of the discovery and its diaspora is told with candid bitterness on the panels of the local museum.

The medieval village of three quarters

Monteleone di Spoleto is built on a spur at 978 metres, with three historic quarters — San Nicola, Santa Maria, and San Giacomo — separated by three entrance gates. The fourteenth-century walls are nearly intact, the cobbled streets narrow and silent, and the medieval tower dominates the landscape of the Sabine Mountains and the upper Corno valley. In summer, when lowland Umbria bakes, temperatures here are ten degrees lower.

High-altitude cuisine

At nearly a thousand metres, the local cuisine knows nothing of the lightness of the Trasimeno lakes. You eat Apennine spelt soup, aged wild boar sausage, Colfiorito beans, and pecorino cheeses from nearby mountain pastures. A trattoria in the historic centre serves these dishes with a pride that needs no Michelin stars.

How to get there

Monteleone di Spoleto is 30 kilometres from Spoleto and 45 from Norcia. The road climbing from the Corno valley floor is scenic but demanding: a car with good traction is recommended in winter. The village is among the Most Beautiful Villages of Italy.