Civita di Bagnoregio

Rickie Stevie characterizes Civita di Bagnoregio as "Italy's ultimate hill town." I suppose the residents--all of them new gentrifiers--are hoping he can do for them what he did for Gimmelwald. Civita used to be tied to Bagnoregio, but the ridge spur connecting them has eroded away, leaving Civita out on an island by itself, connected only by a foot-bridge of sorts. The last traditional resident left a few years ago, in her 90s, and Civita has come to be known as the "city of the dead." As much out of curiosity as anything else, we drove the few miles from Orvieto, took the bus to the bridge, and walked into Civita during a thunderstorm. We spent the night at the camper-stop in the middle of Bagnoregio.

Orvieto from another angle

The main drag in Bagnoregio, during the pausa, when I 
walked out to the foot-bridge en reconnaisance; at least 
it was shaded

And there it is, Civita, hill town, or better, hill hamlet

Spring in Civita

Church, tower, on main piazza

Perhaps the most interesting thing there: in the 16th century, 
many churches, including Civita's  went a more austere route, 
plastering-over and white-washing all the frescoes we now 
regard as priceless; in 1695, the great earthquake occurred,

shaking the plaster off the forgotten fresco; since known as 
the Madonna of the Earthquake

A bit of the badlands-like environs

Looking up the main drag

No lack of beautiful little scenes

The communal lavanderia; running water came to Civita in the early 1900s

Entrance to the Palazzo--only this wall of which remains; the rest fell down the cliff

Bruschetta with local sausage and cheese and tomatoes and olives, etc.