The Hooks' Adventure Continues!: The Royal Baths

Bagnoregio is a suburb of Civita -- a city near Todi that's documented as early as the 600s, and was probably in existence well before then. The name of the town derives from the thermal springs located there (although I haven't been able to figure out if one can visit the springs now...), which (one guesses) were visited by royalty?

Bagnoregio aside (although it's darling), our main goal was Civita. However, Civita is -- to say the least -- not reachable by car. In fact, it is largely a ghost town, as a result of major earthquake in the late 1600s -- the population varies from 12 in the winter to around 100 in the summer.

Given its fragility, you have to park in Bagnoregio and then walk to the ancient town via a bridge which handily looks flat in the photos (suckering you into going) and then turns out to be a nice steep walk. It's a good thing we've been getting our workouts in Todi! The remarkable thing about this town is its position -- apparently floating in midair. It's on a pedestal of very friable rock, high above the surrounding valley. Based on photos, it's particularly amazing on those misty days, when it looks as though it's on an island.

Jim & Sharon and I actually had set off for Orvieto, to go to the gelato festival. In the car, though, I recalled that this place had been described to me as very photogenic. Jim likes taking photos. I'd never been. Sounds like a good outing, no? We changed tracks, and made it to Bagnoregio without incident.

I've been to a number of small towns in the area, and many of them have limited to no parking in the town itself. Combine this with a "shuttle stop" for Civita, and you will readily understand that I parked in the first available spot -- doing a tidy job with my parallel parking, I must say.

Turned out to have been a bad call in this case -- well, at least somewhat. We ended up having a lovely walk through town, but it added about 2 1/2 miles to our walk, which would not have been a cakewalk in any case. However, we eventually made it to the sign (in a parking lot) for "Staircase to Civita" -- and were caught up short by the view of this town. Quite magnificent. Wow.

On the way, we got to examine a grotto favored by St. Bonaventure, who was born in Civita in 1217 or thereabouts. Down the stairs, down the hill (we'd come up a hill to get to this point), to the bridge (I'm thinking Bears in the Night, for those of you who have kids & can relate to children's literature), down the bridge, up the bridge, through the arch, and...tada! We were there! And boy were we ready for some lunch!

We had a delightful lunch outside, then wandered around the town. Charming!

Back home via Orvieto, the sunroof open, the wind in our hair, and a gelato (lemon!) in our future.