Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Back to the Balagne - Speloncato
We have often driven past Speloncato on our way to the Foret de Tartagine, but today we decided to stop there for an hour or two. Being a Sunday, the 16th Century church of Santa Croce was open and we loved it. There are two confrerie based in Speloncato, and one of them is based at this church. It is bright, welcoming and airy and the 19th century organ here is a delight visually (and hopefully aurally).
We went into the crypt. This is tiny and even cosy, and contains a number of wall recesses that I presume must have once contained the bones of former churchmen. One of them is still occupied and contains a recognisable skull.
Driving through the village on the way to Ile Rousse was a bit challenging. We managed to get through the gap between a bar and its next-door neighbour without scraping the Peugeot 207 hire car, but I wouldn’t have liked to attempt this with my Peugeot 308SW from home which is a few inches wider!
Like the villages of the Casinca, Balagne villages just weren’t made for the automobile and Speloncato is no exception. A musician once sent me a CD of music he’d made (Hopeland: Jones - http://subscription.we7.com/#/album/Jones/Hopeland) that included a song called called Speloncato. Must have another listen!
