Civita di Bagnoregio

Rick Steves, the expert on traveling through Europe through the "back door", raves about a little hill town called Civita di Bagnoregio, which it turns out is a 40 minute bus ride away from Viterbo. I posted a sign at school telling students I was going and asked if any of them wanted to come along. 11 of them and I got to see the most charming small hill town there is.

Steves in his book describes how the two towns Civita and Bagnoregio were at one time linked with Civita being the more predominant of the two. However, geologic erosion took over and the land bridge that linked the two slowly disappeared and Bagnoregio became the main town and Civita, the suburb that has been dubbed, "the dying town". It is dying as there are no young people who live in this hill town and it literally is crumbling away. The day was overcast but as were leaving, this is what we saw....

The hill town of Civita as seen from the end of Bagnoregio. Can you believe the luck we had in seeing it as the rainbow appeared?

This modern footbridge was constructed in 1947.

The town of Bagnoregio is hidden in the trees

The cliff face of Civita

The arch entrance to the town of Civita. Notice in above the arch the guardian lions. Thanks to Art History class, I know the significance of those. Pictured is Alysa J. from Brooklyn, NY.

The town takes no more than five minutes to walk from one end to the other. At the far end lives Maria (she is pictured in Steves' guidebooks) and she is one of the two residents who was born in Civita. She has a wonderful garden that has great views. For 1 Euro, you can go and see it.

I think this is Maria's house

Maria's cliff top garden

The view from Maria's house looks like a mini-Grand Canyon. There are two rivers that flow on either side of Civita that eroded away the countryside and left this hill town.





The tools in Maria's garden

I believe this is a pestle?

Next to Maria's house is a small restaurant in which there is this old time giant olive press. Apparently donkeys used to walk in circles and thereby press the olives.

At the far end of Civita the path starts to go downhill...

It leads to an ancient cave from Etruscan times. This cave was also used for hiding during WWII

Entrance to the cave.

What are students looking at?

They are watching a couple of their peers climb into this cave within a cave. But after a few minutes, the two who climbed in jumped out due to the bugs and spiders within. It was funny, you had to be there.

Steves' book mentions an old laundry, I think this is it, but I can't be sure.

(From left) Maddie L. of Kentucky, Collin W. of Virginia, Katie C. of California, Anna S. of Hawaii, Peter M. of New Jersey, Penny B. of Texas, Tori H. of California and Steve C. of Minnesota. Missing are Jade O. of Hawaii, Sara B. of New Mexico and Alysa J. of New York

I have to include this picture because I ate processed food for the first time since I landed on the European continent. Notice the BRILLIANCE of the hot dogs here. They take a baguette and cut off the top, then impale the bread on a stick and then spoon the ketchup and condiments into the tube and then stick the hot dog in. No mess!! The Europeans, you have to say they improve on American ideas sometimes, and this is one of them