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tolentino |
| Around 20km southwest of Macerata, TOLENTINO doesn't look much at
first sight, girded as it is by ugly modern suburbs. But it improves
markedly after you've crossed its turreted thirteenth-century bridge, a
short way beyond which stands the Basilica di San Nicola (daily
7.30am-12.30pm & 3.30-7pm; free), the main reason for visiting the town.
Its west front is a real feast for the eyes - a curly Baroque facade
with a grinning sun instead of a rose window and a fancily twisting
Gothic portal topped by an oriental-style arch enclosing a dragon-slaying
saint. Inside, the most intriguing feature is the Cappellone di San
Nicola , whose Gothic frescoes create a kaleidoscope of colourful scenes
of medieval life. In fact, they are episodes from the life of Christ,
painted in the fourteenth century by one of Giotto's followers, known
only as the "Maestro di Tolentino". The most striking are The Wedding at
Cana , with hefty servants carrying massive jugs of wine on their
shoulders, The Slaughter of the Innocents , and The Entry into Jerusalem
, in which an attempt at perspective is made by peopling the trees with
miniature figures. In the main piazza is the Museo Internazionale della Caricatura (Tues-Sun 10am-12.30pm & 3-6.30pm; winter closes 5.30pm; L5000/¬2.58), which is filled with some of the world's best satirical cartoons. Just east of Tollentino is the imposing, fourteenth-century Castello della Rancia , which once harboured the notorious Renaissance mercenary Sir John Hawkwood. |