"Città che muore" literally means "town that dies." Bagnoregio is a town about 30 km north of Viterbo that is...well...dying. The town was founded by the Etruscans about 2,500 years ago when the landscape was a little different. An earthquake in 1695 caused damage to many buildings in the town built on tufa rock, and people started to leave. Throughout the centuries following ground shaking activites brought on a series of landslides causing buildings to tumble off the edge. The town is almost empty, except for a few families who chose to stay there, a couple of stores and a restaurant. I saw pictures of the town 200 years ago and I could notice the size difference. A local here said they do not know when the town will completely vanish. It's a possibility Bagnoregio may not be there in 50 years...they just don't know.
A long bridge connects città che muore to the rebuilt town where people relocated. The view of the landscape walking across the bridge is marvelous. It was so quiet walking through the dying town; almost ghost-like. The church and bell tower still remain of course and many ancient buildings. Looking down a sidestreet gives a view of open land where buildings used to sit.
My experience of traveling to and from Bagnoregio added more excitement to the day. A few small groups in our program all had the same idea to travel to Bagnoregio and the nine of us ended up on the same bus. One of the guys said we should get off at this one town and take a bus to Bagnoregio. (That was the instructions he was given I guess) So we did. The bus to our destination wasn't coming for a while and we had to see the city and be at the bus stop in Bagnoregio to catch the 4:45 ride back home. We decided to walk (8km) to our dest
ination.
I'm sure we looked quite humorous to the locals; 9 Americans walking along the road. The scenery was nice. The funny part is that buses passed us often but would pull over...one carried other people from our program also going to the same place. We finally made it there with enough time to explore the dying town, which of course was on the complete opposite side of the new town.
When it was time to leave we asked a local if we were at the correct bus stop to go back to Viterbo, and he said yes. Well, we saw the bus we were to catch, but it went the opposite direction of us...we were then stranded in Bagnoregio. Here were the options: take a bus to a neighboring town, ride a train to Rome and then hope to catch the train back to Viterbo; stay in a b & b for 25 euro/person and no heat; or stay in the woods and live off of the food we just bought at a local supermarket. Luckily our program coordinators found us a bus back to Viterbo for a minimal fee. The guys we were with made us dinner that night to celebrate our return.
What a day!
A long bridge connects città che muore to the rebuilt town where people relocated. The view of the landscape walking across the bridge is marvelous. It was so quiet walking through the dying town; almost ghost-like. The church and bell tower still remain of course and many ancient buildings. Looking down a sidestreet gives a view of open land where buildings used to sit.
My experience of traveling to and from Bagnoregio added more excitement to the day. A few small groups in our program all had the same idea to travel to Bagnoregio and the nine of us ended up on the same bus. One of the guys said we should get off at this one town and take a bus to Bagnoregio. (That was the instructions he was given I guess) So we did. The bus to our destination wasn't coming for a while and we had to see the city and be at the bus stop in Bagnoregio to catch the 4:45 ride back home. We decided to walk (8km) to our dest
ination.I'm sure we looked quite humorous to the locals; 9 Americans walking along the road. The scenery was nice. The funny part is that buses passed us often but would pull over...one carried other people from our program also going to the same place. We finally made it there with enough time to explore the dying town, which of course was on the complete opposite side of the new town.
When it was time to leave we asked a local if we were at the correct bus stop to go back to Viterbo, and he said yes. Well, we saw the bus we were to catch, but it went the opposite direction of us...we were then stranded in Bagnoregio. Here were the options: take a bus to a neighboring town, ride a train to Rome and then hope to catch the train back to Viterbo; stay in a b & b for 25 euro/person and no heat; or stay in the woods and live off of the food we just bought at a local supermarket. Luckily our program coordinators found us a bus back to Viterbo for a minimal fee. The guys we were with made us dinner that night to celebrate our return.
What a day!
1 comment:
Great photo. Make sure to click on it to enlarge it if you are reading Julie's blog.
Mark
Post a Comment