I tried to shoot a good amount of video this year to give me a bunch of material for the blog, so I will have quite a few of the various cities we visited on our tours. Spoleto was a place that we visited fairly often, but I only shot video once while there for a few hours. Unfortunately, it was very early in the season, and I was still getting used to the new camera, so the shaking in this video is pretty obvious.

Additionally, they were setting up for their world-famous jazz festival. That being the case, there is so much I didn’t catch on camera. Spoleto is one of the more beautiful cities in Umbria, but it is best known for its Jazz festival. The city dates back to the fifth century BC, and its vast history can still be seen at every corner. Some of the more interesting sights in Spoleto are the massive 14th century Rocca Albornoziana (The Albornozian Castle), which is full of beautiful frescoes and the 12th century cathedral (Duomo), both of which are shown in the video. Interesting sights in Spoleto that are not shown in the video include: The Ancient Roman theater, the 1st century Ponte Sanguinario (The bloody bridge), Ponte delle Torri (the 13th century aqueduct), the 16th century Palazzo Racani-Anoni, the 14th century Palazzo della Signoria, and much more.

Many of our Culture Discovery Vacations itineraries feature a visit to this magnificent town, but for those that wish to go on their own, it can be found in the Perugia Province of Umbria, Italy; about 15 miles north of Terni, or about 75 miles north of Rome. It is about 30 miles north of our home base, Soriano nel Cimino.

CultureDiscovery.com is a proud sponsor of this year’s Jazz Festival in Soriano. We hope you will come and see us! We’ll be filming a great deal of the festival this year in High Definition, as well as conducting numerous interviews.

This is the preliminary schedule for the 2008 Jazz festival in Soriano. Most performances begin around 9:00 PM in Soriano’s main Piazza. Some performances will take place in the City Hall Courtyard. Keep in mind that more events are likely to be added to the schedule as time drawn near. Additionally, performances end at midnight as the Rotezzia Pub in Soriano (Located in Catacombs below the main Piazza) opens up for all-night Jam Sessions.

The festival was not at all what I had expected.  I honestly thought that it would be a cute little festival with a few nights of music, headed by some local Italian jazz musicians.  Instead, it turned out to be a major International event.  

Roughly 1,400 musicians from across the globe appeared in a series of concerts every night for nearly a full month.  Some were young musicians that came to learn in the workshops or participate in competition for the Jimmy Woode prize, and some were seasoned jazz musicians that saw this as a truly international event.  Some of the bigger names included Jimmy Woode’s daughter, Shawnn Monteiro, Benny Golson, Joey De Francesco, Jimmy Cobb, Buster Williams, George Cables, Bobby Durham, Jesse Davis, Giorgio Rosciglione, Gegè Munari, Eddy Palermo, Piero Odorici, Massimo Faraò and John Kinnison.
Aside from the nightly concerts, every night after midnight, Soriano’s Rotezzia Pub, a large pub that is made from a series of connecting grottos and caverns, would host the nightly jam sessions.  Here, artists would get up and perform at random until daybreak every night. 

In all, it is said that 70,000 spectators came to Soriano for the concerts.  In fact, Soriano reached critical mass by the second week, when there were no more rooms available and people were renting spare bedrooms out of desperation.  Word to the wise:  Reserve early if you plan to attend in 2008.

The festival built up to a single ‘main event’ night one Saturday, when Soriano hosted its ‘Notte Bianca’  (White Night).  On this night, all stores were open until 5:00 AM, street vendors were out all night, several outdoor taverns were erected to serve grilled sausages, pasta, etc., and six stages were setup all over town to host an all-night event with 40 concerts. 

All in all, this was by far the most impressive event I have ever seen in Soriano.  I’m already counting the days till next year’s festival….  It was a huge success, and will be here for at least the next five years.