Venture down the steps below the Duomo to feel the magic of an unusual and enchanting garden surrounded by medieval houses.  There is a likely chance you will meet the artist.  It surely will be a highlight of your visit to Spoleto.

Unsure who wrote these words, sitting invitingly on the flip side of the Open Art Spoleto brochure.  But they capture the feeling we’ve had each time we visited.

With one exception: the chance of finding it open, much less meeting the artist,  never seemed all that likely.  (Many photographs we have, certainly, from afar.)

This year, all that changed.  After pulling on the locked gate, hearing the hidden dog bark, we turned to leave … before an English-speaking Italian appeared.

He fumbled through a set of keys; joked about the last one holding the charm; then ushered us into a truly enchanting garden surrounded by medieval houses.

The brochure forgot to mention all the art works, spread throughout the garden, in the open air.  Small sculptures, mostly figures and faces, hanging everywhere.

Some of these photos online, from a garden party, come close to the feel (if you subtract the important-looking people and flip the setting from night to day).

Predictably, neither the brochure nor the website carries any of the delight of the conversation.  Born in Spoleto, Giampiero Panella returned home ten years ago.

He lives and works in this fabulous old house, realizing the human form in terra-cotta figures, then converted to bronze before being placed in a garden setting.

<The Machine in the Garden is an old book of mine.  After my fall from grace with technology, I fear promises.  If some of the pixels turn out, you’ll see.>