Civita di Bagnoregio

The idyllic, summer-like weather continues and we decided to take advantage of a beautiful day to set out under a crystal blue sky to visit the hill town of Civita, just outside of Bagnoregio which is situated approximately 2/3 of the way between Viterbo and Orvieto. We arrived after a 30 minute drive and parked in central Bagnoregio. As you walk the main street of the city you catch views of distant hills as you pass each side street and you get the feeling that the edge of the city is pinching in until you finally arrive at the end of the line and catch your first glimpse of Civita about a kilometer away. This is perhaps the quintessential hilltop town. It is accessible only by a narrow bridge that replaced what was a donkey path along a dirt ridgeline until not that long ago. It doesn't have a duomo or a famous horse race. It doesn't even really have a permanant population of more than 15 people, but the sight of it will take your breath away!

Some 350 years ago the town had a population approaching 4000 people. A large earthquake in the mid 1600's started an exodus that continued until the present time so that now only a handful of souls actually live in the town. This is in part because the town has been slowly sliding down the sides of the mountain. In fact, the signs refer to it (in Italian, of course) as the dying town. The picture below is of a house just next to the main (only) gate of the city. The window openings on the upper two stories are identical except there is a noticable crack that runs the height of the building between the first and second windows and clearly there is nothing there behind the first set of windows.

Even so, there are many beautifully kept gardens and houses in the town. My goal was to take a picture of everything which was too hard to describe and I ended up with over 50 pictures including the one below of a tiny courtyard at a bend in an alley.

While the population of the town may not be that large, there is clearly a service industry set up to cater to the many tourists who visit. If our off-season visit was any indication, during the summer it must be blistering hot and mobbed with people. There were dozens of restaurants and shops to choose from, but not quite enough seats in the restaurants for everybody to eat simultaneously. Being boorish Americans, we were not adverse to eating early and hunkered down at a little place just off the main "street" through the town. I call it a street since it was paved, etc., but only pedestrians and the occasional skooter use the roads. Lunch was simple, but delicious. While we ate we were visited by a handful of local cats that are breeding like, well cats. I resisted the urge to add another picture of one of Jet's Italian cousins, but once again a cat almost made its way back to Viterbo with us. As the traditional lunch time of 1 pm approached, more and more people came by and inquired about tables only to be sent on their way with an envious glance in our direction. In an interesting coincidence, the couple sitting at the table next to us were from Worcester giving us 6 people from Massachusetts eating lunch at the same out of the way restaurant in a little town in Italy.



We had a delightful time and hope to return again later in the fall for dinner, perhaps with American guests should any feel the urge to hike the kilometer uphill.