May 7, 2018 - A Tour of Italy with the Griners - Civita di Bagnoregio & Back to Rome

May 26, 2018

The last day of our trip took us from our Airbnb in Ceparana to Rome, with an amazing stop on the way.

Here are a few pics of our place in Ceparana. Derek and Mark seem to dress alike with surprising frequency, but when that doesn't happen, apparently Derek tries to dress so that he can effectively hide in the curtains!

The home we rented was a detached, single family dwelling, which is rather odd in Italy, as most people live in apartment buildings. It is also unusual to have a home with a garden like this one.

Knowing we only had time to make one significant stop on the way back to Rome, we narrowed our choices to the following: Pisa, Siena, San Gimignano, and Civita di Bagnoregio. We unanimously (Well, except that Hannah really wanted to see the leaning tower and felt cheated that we missed that.) agreed that it had to be the stunning medieval hill town of Civita di Bagnoregio. We were thrilled with our decision!

From the very first view of the town, Civita di Bagnoregio seems to be showing off. It is so beautiful, perched on the top of an isolated hill!

There is no car access to the town. Everyone has to walk up the long pedestrian bridge, with the exception of a few scooters and ATVs that are used to provide supplies to the town.

It is an Etruscan village, first settled over 2,500 years ago. The geographical size of the town has been decreasing over the centuries, slowly eroding away, due to the foundation of clay below. Earthquakes have made the problem even worse. The area used to be a peninsula but has become more and more of an island, as parts of the city fall into the valley below. A small population still lives there, and there are some shops, cafes, and bars, but most people have moved across the bridge to the larger, more modern town. Tourists have only found this little hill town in recent years, and there has been a bit of a revival. There have been clear efforts to preserve it and keep it up as long as possible.

The town is brimming with quaint and beautiful views, everywhere you look. It certainly caters to tourists, but there is enough of the original town to make it truly remarkable. We couldn't stop oohing and ahhing at everything we saw.

With erosion making the margins of the town ever narrower, there are often doorways, windows, and stairways that lead to open air with nothing below them (See the pictures above and below).

There many beautiful little garden areas, nestled in medieval architecture, with grand views.

We stumbled upon a "cave tour" for 1 Euro and decided to take a look. It was an impressive glimpse into a past time. It was a cave system below the town that was used for olive oil and wine processing. There are apparently many such caves under the city.

The 1/2 barrel above is the really old fashioned wine press, where the pressing was done with bare feet! The one below is the "modern" version, where the pressing was done by a man operating this machine.

The round stone platform is a large, donkey-powered grain mill. A stone turned on the top of that, using the beam sitting on it. Some pieces are missing, but the whole room seemed mostly just as it had been left, the day that someone decided not to come back and use it anymore.

These giant wooden screws, set into the floor and wall, are a type of olive press to get the oil out of the fruit. It was amazing to see the ingenuity that people used to survive, with only rudimentary resources; really a beautiful design and system.

There was also a little furnished kitchen/eating area and bedroom, to make it comfortable and homey.

The stairs leading into the wine cellar were built to allow a person to roll a barrel up or down. Based on Hannah's expression, maybe she got there first and was sampling the product??

We did some more exploring as evening set in and found more beautiful views. They close the gates before it gets dark, so the locals do get a bit of peace and privacy before the day is completely over.