Civita di Bagnoregio

Civita di Bagnoregio is one of the most extraordinary sights in northern Lazio, a tiny medieval village stranded atop a crumbling pinnacle of volcanic tufa in the canyon country near Viterbo. Nicknamed 'la città che muore', the dying city, it has been slowly losing its edges for centuries to the erosion of the soft clay badlands, the calanchi, that surround it, and the original land bridge collapsed long ago. Today the village is reached only on foot, across a long, steeply rising pedestrian footbridge that spans the ravine, and a modest entrance fee is charged to help fund its preservation. The walk over the bridge, with the village floating ahead above the eroded valley, is the defining experience and the best photographic vantage point, especially at sunrise or sunset when the tufa glows. Inside the gate, visitors pass through the medieval Porta Santa Maria, carved with lions, into a hushed cluster of stone houses, flower-filled balconies, a small Romanesque church on the central piazza, and a handful of cafés, craft shops and viewpoints over the canyon. The permanent population has dwindled to only a dozen or so residents, which lends the place a stilled, almost theatrical atmosphere, though day visitors now arrive in steady numbers. A visit, including the bridge walk both ways, takes two to three hours. The village has no through roads and everything is reached by foot on cobbled lanes and steps. It is reached by bus or car to Bagnoregio town, from where the footbridge begins; Orvieto in nearby Umbria is a common gateway. Midweek and early or late in the day are far quieter than summer weekends. As a hauntingly beautiful, scope-specific corner of the Viterbo countryside, Civita di Bagnoregio is among Lazio's most memorable excursions.