With the arrival of good weather, I can spend (finally) some of the weekends discovering the villages near Rome.
This year I started with the village of Calcata, 40 kilometres from Rome and in the middle of the Tuscia Viterbese. To get there from Rome it takes about an hour by car and, once arrived, you can leave the car in the little municipal parking: It costs 2 euros per hour. However, along the road to get there are some free parking (but few) and that on Sunday I found the entrance to the parking lot open (does not necessarily mean that the
parking was free because it was Sunday). The first thing you notice of Calcata is that its historical centre is practically built inside a tuffaceous rock, overlooking the valley of the river Treja. TO enter the village there is only one single door along the walls. As I said a little above, Calcata was built in the tuff, and many houses have, under roads and alleys, caves often also in several underground floors: these are usually used as deposits and cellars. Before the trip, as for every departure, I looked for some information and I discovered that Calcata is also populated with legends!
It seems that in 1527 was captured a lanzichenecco that had taken part in the sack of Rome, and looted the Sancta Sanctorum of San Giovanni in Laterano. Imprisoned in the country, he would have hidden the reliquary containing the Saint foreskin in his cell, where it would be discovered in 1557. Since then the Church began to venerate the relic, granting the pilgrims a ten-year indulgence. The ancient village of Calcata has also been chosen as a film location and for music videos:
in “Amici miei” (1975), the scene of the destruction of the village was shot here. We find the village also in “La mazzetta” (Sergio Corbucci, 1978) and “Ardena” (Luca Barbareschi, 1997). A video from Fabrizio De André’s “Una storia sbagliata” was shot in Calcata. There are literary quotes, of course: we find the ancient village in the “Ulysses” by James Joyce, in the novel “Il Vangelo secondo Gesù Cristo” by José Saramago and in the novel “Un delitto a regola d’arte” by Donald Bain.
The village is tiny, to visit it all and discover the unique views it takes at most an hour: I suggest you walk calmly, to take time and go in search of the most characteristic corners. If you have time, I would also count on a further stop in the surroundings (the Tuscia viterbese hides many small treasures that you should discover). In the summer, given its location, Calcata is (much) hotter than you can imagine: remeber that during your trip.