The best hikes from bus stations around Zona Speciale di Conservazione Monte Cimino

From this point on, it was difficult for me to continue on my MTB; I continued on foot to the stream. Since there was a lot of water and it was impossible to continue, we turned back.

The Teatro dell'Unione was built at the behest of a group of notable citizens of Viterbo who, led by Count Tommaso Fani Ciotti, joined together in 1844, with a deed of incorporation, to form the “Società dei Palchettisti”: the theatre took its name from their “union”. The Teatro dell'Unione was built because of the great interest the people of Viterbo had in opera, of which they were refined connoisseurs. The Società dei Palchettisti undertook the construction of this building with the intention of creating a "temple" dedicated to opera, given the presence of another theater in the city, the Genio. Even today, the Teatro dell'Unione is one of the most beautiful 19th-century Italian-style theatres in Lazio. During the Second World War, bombings, which devastated the entire city, also damaged the theater: the explosion of the bomb that hit the eastern section, where the dressing rooms were located, damaged the frescoes in the foyer , the box office, and a portion of the fresco in the auditorium. To access the funds earmarked for post -war reconstruction , the heirs of the notable Viterbo citizens who built it decided to sell the building to the municipality, which has owned it ever since. With the arrival of funds, the Municipality took care of the restoration and the theatre was reopened in September 1952. The Teatro dell'Unione remains, to this day, undisputedly one of Viterbo's architectural jewels.

Piazza di Santa Maria in Poggio is a small, quiet, and intimate medieval square, nestled slightly elevated in the heart of historic Viterbo. Far from the busiest streets, it retains an intimate and authentic character, deeply rooted in neighborhood life. The church that gives it its name, built in peperino stone, features a simple, austere façade, devoid of superfluous ornamentation, perfectly integrated into the surrounding urban fabric. It is a parish church, designed for a stable community, and it was here that Saint Rose of Viterbo was baptized in 1233, a sign of the profound connection between this place and the city's spiritual history. At the center of the square is a medieval fountain, also made of peperino stone, dating to the first half of the 13th century, created for the daily supply of water. Popular tradition links it to the young Saint Rose, who is said to have drawn water from here, adding a sense of memory and devotion to the place.

Unfortunately, the church was closed for renovations. But the interior should have been richly decorated with frescoes. Dating back to 1503, the building features numerous frescoes by local artists, including the storming of the castle of Vitorchiano by the army of Viterbo. Outside the city walls, a few hundred metres from the city, on the road to Viterbo, stands the church of San Nicola, to which a convent of Poor Clares is annexed. The origins of the church, known to the locals as the church of the nuns, date back to the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century. Lombard craftsmen who worked in Vitorchiano at that time made an important constructive contribution. The façade, in peperino bricks, with a saddle roof, has an architrave portal topped by a lunette with above it the large round eye of the rose window, with two rectangular windows on the sides and at the top the monogram of San Bernardino da Siena. On the roof, behind the apse, a small bell gable stands out with two bells that seem to come from the ancient, nearby Ferento. The importance of the church, from an artistic point of view, is due to the numerous and beautiful frescoes of the Viterbo school that are inside and that cover all the walls of the single nave from floor to ceiling. (c) https://reteimpresevitorchiano.it/contenuti/284372/chiesa-madonna-san-nicola#

Beautiful, modest cemetery.

The gate bears the coat of arms of Vitorchiano with the inscription SPQR (for which the village received permission from Rome). The gate is part of the old wall that extends for about two hundred and fifty metres on the south side of Vitorchiano. The tower above the gate dates from the 13th century. The old city walls (Le Mura Castellane) have several towers, each built of peperino stone and dovetail battlements with loopholes in between.

The Tiberina Gate was the main entrance to the heart of the town, Piazza Roma, from which the people of Vitorchiano reached the vegetable gardens, olive groves and vineyards in the valley at the foot of the cliff on which the village stands. Here until the 18th century the guards guarded the entrance, an effigy recalls the plague that spread throughout Italy from Messina. Now, for trekking lovers, it is the starting and finishing point of the CAI 125 trail that through a suggestive path immersed in nature leads to the rock site of Corviano. (c) https://www.facebook.com/comunedivitorchiano/posts/la-porta-tiberina-de-ilborgosospeso-di-vitorchiano/1808768792605454/

The first monument we encounter that recalls the ancient medieval village is the Castle, a fortified palace built on the edge of the cliff and preceded by a defensive moat. The northern walls have disappeared following the collapses, but the surviving circle of walls is still clearly recognizable. The south-eastern corner of the castle preserves the wall structure built on the foundations of enormous pre-existing blocks of rock very well. Even the entrance portal, on the southern side, towards the plateau, preserves some reminders of the door's closing mechanisms and a beautiful oblique slit for the defense of the access area from attackers. Other pointed arch windows and slits of beautiful appearance and in good condition are preserved in the walls. (c) https://blogcamminarenellastoria.wordpress.com/2021/05/16/tuscia-il-borgo-rupestre-di-corviano/