Viterbo

Viterbo earned its title as the City of Popes when the thirteenth-century papacy moved here and held the longest conclave in history inside its Gothic palace. Today the tuff-built old town is one of Europe’s great surviving medieval quarters, the cult of Santa Rosa still moves the city every September, and volcanic springs soak tired travellers.

Why visit

Viterbo is what happens when a major medieval capital simply keeps living in its own shell. The San Pellegrino quarter, one of the largest and best-preserved medieval districts in Europe, holds its original stone pavements, arched gateways, loggias and the external staircases the locals call profferli — and people still hang their laundry in them. Add a papal palace of real European consequence, a cathedral hill layered since Etruscan times, thermal baths within reach of the centre, and a calendar headlined by one of Italy’s most spectacular popular traditions, and the city works equally well as a day trip from Rome or a base for exploring the volcanic country of Lakes Bolsena and Vico.

Character and history

The city stands on Cimini foothills between two great volcanic lakes, a landscape the Etruscans worked long before Viterbo itself appears in the record; the surrounding hills keep Etruscan-Roman remains such as the necropolis of Castel d’Asso and the Roman site of Ferento. Medieval Viterbo grew rich on the Via Francigena, the pilgrim road from the north, and its Guelph families built the towers and palazzi that still crowd the centre. When the papacy fled the turmoil of Rome, successive popes made the city their seat in the mid-thirteenth century: the Papal Palace was raised as an expansion of the bishop’s residence, its Loggia of 1267 overlooks Piazza San Lorenzo, and its Aula del Conclave hosted the first and longest conclave of all — thirty-three months, from 1268 to 1271. Dante himself recorded a darker local episode: the murder of Henry of Cornwall in 1272, committed in a Viterbo church. The city’s patron saint, Santa Rosa, a young woman of the Guelph cause, gives Viterbo its defining ritual each 3 September, when one hundred porters carry the Macchina di Santa Rosa — a tower close to thirty metres tall and weighing around fifty quintals — through the twisting streets; UNESCO recognised the tradition as intangible heritage in 2013.

What to see

The Papal Palace is the city’s emblem, best appreciated from the sweeping Gothic loggia before you step into the conclave hall itself. Beside it, the Cathedral of San Lorenzo has stood on the hill since at least the eighth century, rebuilt in Romanesque form from 1192 and graced with a two-tone Gothic bell tower and a Cosmatesque floor. The Colle del Duomo Museum threads the complex together with archaeological finds, paintings including a Crucifixion traditionally attributed to Michelangelo, and the vestments of popes John XXI and Pius IX. Down in the streets, the civic heart beats on Piazza del Plebiscito at the Palazzo dei Priori, whose Museo dei Portici opens the building’s decorated halls. Ceramics lovers should seek the Tuscia Ceramics Museum in Palazzo Brugiotti, while the Museum of the Facchini di Santa Rosa explains, with startling intimacy, the lives of the porters who carry the Macchina. The Sanctuary of Santa Rosa keeps the saint’s memory in the heart of town, and the Luigi Rossi Danielli Civic Museum adds archaeology and painting to the picture. Round off at the Basilica of Saint Francis at the Rocca, a Gothic church beneath the fortress walls where two popes are buried.

How to experience

Give the medieval quarter your first evening: when the tour buses leave, San Pellegrino becomes a stage set of lamplit lanes, and dinner in one of its vaulted dining rooms is the quintessential Viterbo experience. Local cooking leans on the surrounding country — porcini from the Cimini woods, lake fish, handmade pici, and the tiny corner pastries called tozzetti to finish. Time a visit for early September if you can: the evening of the Macchina di Santa Rosa is loud, devout and unforgettable, though the city fills up. Otherwise, split your days between monuments and water — the historic centre in the morning, thermal baths in the afternoon, with bathing available in establishments in and around the city. The city lies along a stretch of the Via Francigena, so you may well share the pavement with long-distance pilgrims.

Practical planning

Viterbo sits roughly one hundred kilometres north of Rome. Direct regional trains run from Rome’s Ostiense and Tiburtina stations to Viterbo’s Portal del Verano terminus, a short walk from the walls; buses from Rome’s Saxa Rubra are an alternative. The old town is entirely walkable, though tuff pavements and steps make sensible shoes worthwhile. Monument hours and closing days vary seasonally — the Colle del Duomo complex, for example, closes Tuesdays in winter — so check archeoares.it and the municipal site before setting out, and look at the Viterbo Pass if you plan several visits. Autumn and spring are the best seasons; the Terme dei Papi baths make winter visits appealing too. Parking is easiest outside the walls, near Porta Fiorentina or the Rocca.

Nearby places

Viterbo makes the ideal hub for the Tuscia. Tuscania, with its twin Romanesque basilicas, and Tarquinia, home of painted Etruscan tombs, lie to the south-west. Lake country begins nearby: Bolsena on its great volcanic lake, Montefiascone beneath its wine-famed hilltop town, Capodimonte on the lakeshore and the fishing village of Marta. To the south-east, the mirage-like Civita di Bagnoregio crowns a crumbling tufa ridge.