Some advice to spend a relaxing day in Borgo Pace, between spirituality and repose.
The Borgo Pace area offers a wide range of good reasons for a long stay, but if we have little time available and need quiet, we cannot forget to reserve a visit to one of the symbols of this territory, the Abbey of San Michele Arcangelo. Our tour begins from Lamoli where the Abbey dominates the small village, the last inhabited stronghold before the Apennines. Climbing the small hill that hosts it, you are immediately struck by its majesty: founded in the seventh century, it has always had a catalyzing role in the life of the municipality, a place of prayer, spirituality and daily life. Despite the numerous conservation works, the last, thanks to the initiatives of the Fondo Ambiente Italiano, the Abbey still preserves its appearance due to an essential Romanesque architecture with three naves. Inside there are paintings from the Umbrian School, valuable wooden works and a very particular crypt with ancient fragments dating back to the foundation of the Abbey. When the visit is over, you can "get lost" quietly through the streets of the village, being guided by case and roam around the ancient stone houses or choose a road or a path that leads to the surrounding mountains so you can have a view from the top of the Abbey set in the context of a village that has really grown around it. When lunch time arrives, the territory gives its best: in the restaurants of Borgo Pace it is possible to taste all the specialties that nature and the knowledge of the Borgopace housewives give us.
Sompiano red potato gnocchi, mushrooms, truffles and hunting are the kings of the table. In many restaurants and farmhouses in the area it is easy to find the great traditional dishes, some of which are handed down from generation to generation from the ancient times of the monks. After lunch, without having to move too much, the Museum of Natural Colors awaits us. It is in the abbey house next to the Abbey of Lamoli: here you have the opportunity to know the fascinating history of colors, which hides very curious details. This territory has a history intertwined with the dyeing of fabrics and this visit can be an opportunity to know its colorful protagonists: from the ford, used since Roman times to obtain the blue color, to the many natural preparations preserved by the wisdom of the monks and still cultivated in the fields near the museum. In fact, in the meadows surrounding the Abbey, some species of dyeing plants still survive today which, following the ancient procedures, they still give an inimitable color to the fabrics. A walk among these plants is a delight to the senses, among unique colors, pungent scents and the sounds of nature as background.
