The bell tower of Amelia's cathedral has twelve sides, which is very rare, and it is older than the church beside it: it was built in the eleventh century reusing Roman stones and inscriptions, which can still be seen set into the masonry. The cathedral itself has been rebuilt twice, after the damage of 1240 and after the fire of 1629.
What to see
The present church is baroque, light, with altars and side chapels; it keeps the relics of the city's patron saints and works of sculpture and painting gathered over the centuries, among them Renaissance funerary monuments of the family that gave the town bishops and diplomats.
Outside, the bell tower should be looked at by walking round it: the twelve sides are hard to count, and in the stone you can recognise the ancient blocks put back to work, with the Latin letters still legible. Amelia stands on a hill ringed by polygonal walls of huge blocks, among the oldest in Italy, and the cathedral is at the highest point.
Visiting
The cathedral is in piazza del Duomo, at the top of the old town, ten minutes uphill on foot from the porta Romana; free entry, closed at midday. Half an hour.
Our editors' tip
Walk up from the ancient gate rather than driving: you pass between walls of enormous blocks, then between medieval houses, and reach the top with the bell tower appearing at the last moment. In twenty minutes you cross three thousand years of the same hill's history, and the climb is part of the visit.
