Since 2017, Civita di Bagnoregio, with its “Cultural Landscape”, has been nominated for the Tentative Italian List of UNESCO sites for the village’s capacity to distil an important part of the civil, cultural and religious evolution of the Western world into one incredibly fascinating place.
Civita di Bagnoregio
Small Village of Bagnoregio, the Civita is one of “The Most Beautiful Villages in Italy”. Perched on a tuff hill, tiny Civita di Bagnoregio can be reached via a footbridge over a white expanse of gullies.
The “dying city” actually lives. It rates as the first European locality for growth in tourist population, arousing great interest for its uniquely evocative location, appearing to be suspended in the clouds on foggy days.
This stunning tourist destination is often chosen as a location for TV and movies shoots: “The Two Colonels” by Steno in 1962; in 1971, the “Priest” episode of the film “Let’s Have a Riot”; the television script, broadcast on Rai 1 in 2009, “Pinocchio” by Alberto Sironi; “Questione di karma” by Edoardo Falcone in 2017 and “Puoi baciare lo sposo” by Alessandro Genovesi in 2018. It also inspired Haiyao Miyazaki’s famous film “Castle in the Sky”. The initial footage of the 2002 “Terra nostra 2” script was shot in Civita di Bagnoregio.
Once, the valley of gullies, or Badlands, was crossed by one of the oldest roads in Italy that connected Lake Bolsena to the Tiber valley. It was then eroded by streams, atmospheric agents and deforestation. Founded 2500 years ago by the Etruscans, then a Roman colony and birthplace of St. Bonaventure, since 1965, Civita di Bagnoregio can only be reached by a spectacular panoramic pedestrian bridge.
Civita di Bagnoregio
One of its most evocative and characteristic events is definitely the Living Nativity Scene on the medieval streets, and the Palio della Tonna, the challenge between the districts on the backs of donkeys, on the first Sunday of June and second of September.
In 2023 Civita di Bagnoregio received the Best Tourism Village award. The award is presented by the World Tourism Organization Unwto, which selects small localities around the world that have created new opportunities for sustainable development.