Is quite common: whenever we say Lazio everybody think about Rome and Vatican City, but there is much more than this!
The Lazio Region is an extraordinary mix of Nature, Culture, and mystic places and was with these expectations that couple of years ago, between the end of April and the beginning of May, I decided with my family to leave for this unusual tour.
Our intention was to visit the area of Bolsena Lake; for this reason, we chose an accommodation almost in the middle of all the places we were supposed to visit. We found a nice Bed & Breakfast http://www.labaiadellago.it/ in Marta, a picturesque small and silent village on the Lake of Bolsena’s shores where we arrived in the late afternoon of one Thursday. At the sunset the walking along the lake shores has been a perfect way to relax us from the long travel from Romagna and to get tired our daughter in order to have a full night of sleep.
1° Day: Viterbo
Our first stop was Viterbo where we arrived in the middle of the San Pellegrino flower’s festival
(I assure you that I still can smell the scent of those marvelous flowers!).
Viterbo is around 80 km far from Rome but in our case, was just 20 minutes far from our B&B in Marta. Is the major Town of the Tuscia Area, and is famous as the City of the Popes, in memory of the period in which the papal seat was moved here. With Etruscan origin and great historical traditions, it preserves one of the most important monumental structures in Lazio. It is surrounded by medieval crenellated walls and massive towers (built from 1095 to 1268), still almost intact today, and even If few people are aware of that, is recognized as the biggest Medieval historic center in Europe!
Unfortunately we had just one day to spend there so we concentrated us to see the some of the Best sight-seeing in Viterbo:
• Palace of the Popes
• The Cathedral
• The Medieval district of San Pellegrino
• Priori’s Palace
• Thermal baths of the Popes : there are several baths around Viterbo; we chose the Bullicame thermal pool that we highly recommend If you travel with children, because is one of the few locations where “ get dirty” is the main purpose
2° Day: Bomarzo and Civita di Bagnoregio
We spent the morning of our 2°day’s tour visiting the Monster’s park of Bomarzo.
You can find here the report of our “frightful” experience!
We had a very quick a typical lunch in the old center of Bomarzo at Tutto ‘nartro magna, https://www.facebook.com/TUTTO-Nartro-Magna-285946728509669/ a butcher who serves as well as trattoria, in which we delighted our self with typical homemade Tuscia’s dishes.
After lunch we drove to the magic and surreal Civita di Bagnoregio known as “the dying City”: this nickname is due to the constant erosion of the tuff rocks on which it is located.
Civita has Etruscan and medieval origins and is reachable only through a narrow uphill pedestrian bridge 300 meters long. Walking till there makes you out of breath, but the Panorama and the atmosphere you get there are unique.
Our impression was to be jumped into a movie set! The village was seemed suspended in time and space. (We was it in a sunshine day but they told us that with a foggy day is much more evocative!)
We had a guide with indications of “what to see”, but we preferred to wander around the village joying it freely.
3° Day: Bolsena – Orvieto – Pitigliano
On the last day of our tour we started with a relaxing morning in Bolsena, visiting the historic center and having a restful walking among the shore of the lake ( the lake’s water was pretty cold, but we couldn’t avoid to try it and splatter a bit our daddy! )
After a tasty fish lunch, we left the Lazio region to start a slowly back-home travel.
However we had 2 more stops in plan: one of this was Orvieto in the Umbria region.
Orvieto is a charming city, with almost three thousand years of history. Is a sort of open-air museum, has eno-gastronomic and artisan traditions and is famous for important events such as Umbria Jazz Winter or the Christian festival of Corpus Domini.
We parked in the railway station surroundings and we chose the cableway solution to reach the historical center that is set on an uphill tuff Rock.
We had just a couple of hours to spend there, so we chose to see the 2 major attractions: the wonderful Cathedral and the Pozzo di San Patrizio.
The “Duomo” is one of the most beautiful Cathedrals in the world, with its original golden decorations. Its majesty is without any doubt the first feature that attract tourist’s eyes. Inside, in the Cappella del Corporale is housed the relic of Corpus Domini.
Another unmissable attraction in Orvieto is the Pozzo di San Patrizio that with its 54 meters deep and 248 stairs to reach the bottom, offers a memorable experience, especially to Kids!
Orvieto has always had the problem of water supply, and that’s the main reason for the building of an incredible quantity of wells about 3,000 years ago by the Etruscans. This one in specific has been ordered by Pope Clement VII in 1527. The reason why the Well took the name of Saint Patrick is because this was one of the favorite place of the Saint for his meditation and atonement for sins.
It is developed with a helical system, designed by Antonio da Sangallo, who ensures to never meet those who go down with those who go up the stairs of the Well.
For me the climb back up was very strenuous because I had my daughter in my arms all the time…(she was just 8 months at that time) despite this, I remember the Well’s experience as one of the best of our tour.
It was around 5 PM and our travel to home was still long, so we decided to pass through Pitigliano just for a quick visit (it would have been a pity to lose it).
With the arrival in Pitigliano we added another Italian region to our tour: we were in Tuscany!
Pitigliano is recognized as one of the most beautiful village in Italy, and is nicknamed The Little Jerusalem, because starting from the sixteenth century it hosted a large Jewish community within its walls. As Civita di Bagnoregio, also Pitigliano is perched on a tuff cliff and the idea to do another climb to visit the historic center has discouraged us mainly for the limited time… but to be honest also for the fact that we were supposed to carry uphill our little daughter Arianna 🙂 So we just had a look at it from the valley, dreaming to come back as soon as possible!
