Met our guide at the foot of Civita Di Bagnoregio. There's a public bus that takes tourists to the entrance of the city where you can get tickets in.
Our escape from the city and to Civita Di Bagnoregio - a village perched on a precarious rockstack. Founded in the 7th century, accessible via a pedestrian bridge, the Romanesque San Donato Church sits in the main square.
The walk up was treacherous and very tiring for the elderly. Lucky thing for us, we did this walking tour as our age, if it was 30 years later...hmm maybe too difficult for me!
By the 16th century, Civita di Bagnoregio was beginning to decline due to its soil profile. Every year, the village is losing approx 1cm around its side due to earthquakes, soil erosion and all things mother nature.
At the end of the 17th century, many of the villagers were forced to move to Bagnoregio because of a major earthquarke that accelerated the old town's decline. It was turning into an island and the pace of the erosion quickened as the layer of clay below the stone was reached in the area where today's bridge is situated.
This village is much admired for its architecture spanning several hundred years. Civita di Bagnoregio owes much of its unaltered condition to its relative isolation; the town was able to withstand most intrusions of modernity as well as the destruction brought by two world wars. The current population is about 7 people.
It is currently placed on the World Monument Fund's 2006 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites.
Civita di Bagnoregio is noted for its striking position on top of a plateau of friable volcanic tuff overlooking the Tiber river valley.
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