Once upon a time there was a fairy tale village, Sant’Angelo di Roccalvecce, and it is still there! This small hamlet in the province of Viterbo testimonies the deep creative values of its inhabitants.
In December 2016, the citizen Gianluca Chiovelli established the independent cultural association ACAS, with the aim of carrying out the bold project of transforming the village into a magical stage, where our childhood characters could be brought to life. The once desolate squares, streets and alleys have been decorated with these impressive works by a team of female street artists, included Stefania Marchetto, Tina Loiodice, Alessandra Carloni, Daniela Lai, Lidia Scalzo, Isabella Modanese, Stefania Capati, Cecilia Tacconi, Lena Ortmann and Ginevra Giovannon.
Our magical adventure starts with “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carrol, the symbol of that wonderful crazy dimension, which can only be experienced with imagination. The mural was painted by Tina Loiodice in the main square of Sant’Angelo, to point out the link between fairy tales and the reborn village.
Sant’Angelo di Roccalvecce “Alice in Wonderland”
The entire façade of the house is frescoed with the protagonists of the story, wonderfully intertwined with reality. The White Rabbit’s clock shows 11:27, in honour of the work’s inauguration, which took place on November 27, 2017. Alice, a little girl with local features in her traditional blue and white dress, will accompany you into this enchanted place, where, as in the real world, you would risk getting lost without a guide.
Sant’Angelo di Roccalvecce – “The Sleeping Beauty”
And here, as if by magic, true works of art will appear before our eyes: “The Four Musicians of Bremen”, “The Jungle Book”, “Peter Pan”, “The Little Prince”, “The Fairies of Avalon”, “The Little Match Girl”, “The Ugly Duckling”,”Hansel and Gretel”,”Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, “The Sleeping Beauty”, “The Gnomes” by the Grimm brothers, and many others.
“Come with me where dreams were born and where time is not programmed; think only of pleasant things and your heart will fly on its wings forever”
After the dark months of Covid, the narration continues with this poem, a wish of hope, painted on a staircase. Wandering throughout the streets of Sant’Angelo, you will also come across artistic installations depicting the fairy tales of the past, such “The Adventures of Pinocchio”, described by eleven plates of cooked peperino, the luck-bringer basalt dwarf Grumpy, and the sweet Snow White hosted in a marble lunette.
Sant’Angelo di Roccalvecce – Viterbo – “The Beauty and the Beast”
And now, let us conclude our journey into this fairy world with the happy ending of the Beauty and the Beast falling in love with each other. This tale is based on an event really occurred in the area of Viterbo, with the Beast being a Spanish nobleman belonging to the Court of Henry II of France. It is said that he married a beautiful damsel of Queen Catherine and, after various vicissitudes, settled in Capodimonte on Lake Bolsena, where he died in 1618.
After leaving this open-air art gallery, we can visit the neighbouring hamlets and villages reachable through the “Sentiero dei castelli e delle fiabe”, which connects Sant’Angelo, Roccalvecce and Celleno. Also very interesting is the route from Spicciano, a district of Graffignano, which leads to Sant’Angelo, along a magical itinerary of about twenty kilometres.