Papa and I left Orvieto this morning, picked up a rental car and found our new home for the coming days, in Sermugnano, a tiny village of 20 people a few miles south of Orvieto. We are staying in a small castle on Piazza del Castello at the top of the village. The castle is very old and simple but beautifully furnished. It has beautiful views from every window including a little church across the Piazza.
By noon, we were on our way to see Civita di Bagnoregio, a hilltop village founded by the Etruscans over 2500 years ago. The Porta Santa Maria gateway was built by the Etruscans. Founded in the 7th. Century, the Romanesque San Donato Church sits in the main square. Civita di Bagnoregio’s relatively unaltered condition is owed to its relative isolation. The population today varies from 7 in winter to about 100 in summer. The town was placed on the World Monuments Fund’s 2006 Watch List of Most endangered sites, due to threats of erosion and tourism.
Our next stop was in Bolsena, thought to have been founded by the Romans on a site originally settled by the Etruscans. The remains of the ancient city of Volsinii are nearby, with structures dating to the 6th-4th centuries BC. Bolsena’s old city is anchored by a castle that overlooks Lake Bolsena, the largest volcanic lake in Europe. The lake formed around 104 BC when Vulsini volcano erupted. Bolsena’s waterfront is quite beautiful, with a paved walkway and thousands of roses.
