Soriano nel Cimino, Bomarzo and Viterbo (all in the territory of Lazio, Italy)

I have been intrigued with the medieval ancient hilltop Italian town ever since I spotted Palazzo Catalani.

Soriano nel Cimino

It came up on Getaways with Interval timeshare company. I checked out the town and the area and I had to grab this particular timeshare which is in in an old Palace that has been refurbished. This is what started the planning of the European fall tour of 2025. I was inspired by this place and then I built the trip around it.

I was pretty excited to get here because it looked like a really cool medieval town and we had a very difficult time actually getting up the hill to the town because every entrance was blocked off. We later found out that there was a Medieval Festival going on in Soriano nel Cimino.

The drive from Rome only took about an hour and 15 minutes and along the way we spotted castles and old and new villas and vineyards and everything that you would expect on a drive north of Rome.

We drove around for about a half an hour at the base of the hill of the town trying to find a parking spot and I said to Darren and Lisa while in the car that there has to be a wedding at the church or something's going on and and it turned out there was this festival happening. Lisa and I walked up the hill and finally found Palazzo Catalani to check in. They said they would get our bags because you can't get your car up here. Raul drove down with his truck and brought our bags up, thank God! We got checked in and we were on the second floor of this old Palazzo and it was a cute little one bedroom apartment with the ancient timber ceiling with incredibly thick walls with quaint deep set windows with shutters that you closed and it blacked out the entire room. Truly, the only thing this one bedroom unit was missing was a bathtub.

We started to explore this little town which was so unique from anything in Saskatchewan. Everywhere you looked, every nook and cranny was ancient, charming and beautiful. Not to mention that Castle Orsini was at the very top of the hill. Lisa's rental was situated a little bit closer to the castle. From her rental she just had to walk up the side stairs to get to the Castle.

Lisa's street where she rented was super cute.

Lisa's view out of her living room window.

The clock tower in Soriano nel Cimino

A picture taken from the court yard of Palazzo Catalani.

Generally speaking the Palazzos were always located quite high up in medieval hilltop towns.

A close up of Soriano nel Cimino

Darren trying to find Lisa's rental

The medieval festival that the town's people put on, took a ton of volunteerism. Everywhere you looked you would swear that you were back in medieval times. They had everything you could possibly think of (other than the bad smells and unwashed bodies) to make one think that one was in medieval times.

A well attended Medieval Festival.

The old mural on the inside of the Gate to Soriano nel Cimino.

After the first set of competitions, you can see the stands that are set up on both sides of the Town Square.

The main church in the square.

Fireworks at the end of the day.

We had heard about a really high ranked 4.8 Pizzeria. We went there and it was so cheap and so good and we got to try Chestnut Bacon Pizza which I thought was really good. I had a glass of wine and it was €1.50 and it wasn't necessarily to my taste but it wasn't bad for €1.50.

We packed it in for the night to get some rest for the next day

The next day Lisa came over and picked me up at about 11:30 and we started to wander down all the streets and doorways. Everywhere you looked had an area that was like a walk-in museum exhibit of the medieval times. You would enter into one door and you'd see the inside of a peasant's home and the next door would be an Apothecary and the next door would be some guy with his donkey and the next door would be the Blacksmith. This town thought of everything and if you had no idea what medieval times was like, this was such an amazing representation. It was unreal. We wandered around for hours doing this and everybody was so friendly here and we only ran into two other people that were speaking English that we heard. It was packed with Italians and everybody was so happy and just so proud.

The medieval festival in full swing.

The Medieval banners were flying on every street.

Lisa in the Rocco area of Soriano

A photo because finally we found her accommodation for the week.

Chestnut Roasting in Soriano is no joke, they take it seriously.

The Rocco area is gorgeous with another church and town fountain and square.

The first of the caves that we checked out that was set up as a medieval families home.

In the Apothecary, I really liked this room.

An Apothecary Man with his mortar and pestle.

A bread making family

Some weaving was happening.

A Street Urchin. She looked legit.

A Blacksmith and his faithful Donkey.

The young girls going around the Maypole.

This was set up with Medieval games.

We then made our way to the Orsini Castle because it was only open on weekends. This castle dated back to the 1200s when it was first built. It was originally built as a fortified Castle to protect the area and then later in the centuries Pope Benedictine III lived there and died there and then it became a palace/ fortified Castle and then eventually in the 1800s it took on the roll of a prison for the area. The Castle had art exhibits in it which were very interesting and we made our way up the winding staircase in the tower which is the narrowest tower had I have ever tried to climb. It was probably four or five stories high from the main part of the castle and it afforded great views of the surrounding town and surrounding lands of Lazio.

The view at the top of the Castle Orsini Tower.

Lisa and I walked up the extremely narrow spiral stone staircase up to the top of Orsini Castle.

Orsini Castle

Inner original decor of the Castle

Original ceiling in the Castle.

We left the Castle and we were hungry and wanted to try the Porchetta, which is basically a pork on a bun. But this pork is made with herbs and the outside is this really crackly, tasty crunchy goodness and the pork bun was very chewy and fresh. They were selling this at the Medieval Festival for 4 Euro.

We sat and watched some more Chestnut roasting competitions to see who can roast their chestnuts the fastest. A certain type of heat will crack off the shell and that was interesting to watch and it and smelled smokey and good. Pumping throughout the square was this playlist of music which was incredible for a medieval festival but it was remixed newer music but had a medieval flair to it. All of the competitions were set among these ancient churches and gates and it was quite incredible to be there. We felt blessed that we were lucky enough to experience it.

That night we ate at a restaurant that was tunneled into the rock cliff that Soriano nel Cimino stood on. It was quite cavernous and awesome and full of charm. I had a plate of Gnocchi and a glass of Vino Blanco.

Walking into the depths of the dug out cave which is now a restaurant.

The last full day in Soriano nel Cimino we took it easy and explored this town more thoroughly. We first checked out our pool because we had heard that up on the third floor outside the pool had great views of Castle Orsini, and it did.

View from the Palazzo Catalani Pool

Soriano nel Cimino really felt like home and everyone was so friendly.

I had never seen a Strawberry Tree before. We ate the red ones. They are mostly used for jam here in Italy but they are high in Vitamin C etc. I really liked them and wish I could grow one in my climate.

The views just never got old.

We then made our way to Palazzo Chigi-Albani which was a 4 minute walk away. This must have been a spectacular Palace in its heyday. It was even beautiful in its dilapidated state. Tickets were 3 Euro each. We made our way through the first section of the palace and we thought it was the palace but it wasn't, it was the stable area on the first level, the staff on the second level and chickens and household pets were kept on the third level. This section had almost been fully restored and housed many art exhibits of a Cubism artist etc.

Palazzo Chigi-Albani gate.

The Art exhibits inside the refurbished stables.

The Artist.

Outside behind the stables where there are fountains and a maze etc.

The Gardens on the upper level behind the stables.

This was a strange room connecting the Stables and Palazzo. Mr. Chigi-Albani loved his fountains.

The stable, staff and pet building which we had thought that it was just part of the Palazzo.

We walked outside to the back garden area which was lovely, they had two levels of gardens.

The actual Palace was tremendous and it had several very elaborate fountains and pools areas.

The fountains on the balcony leading to the Palazzo.

More fountains and pools

There were 4 statues with fountains
and pools representing the 4 seasons.

The palace floor level was gorgeous with beautiful floors and old wall murals and stunning large windows to view the castle. The crown molding was carved stone and elaborate. The grand staircase was a mess with the second and third floors from above had caved in and fell down the flights of stairs. They expect to be done the renovation in 4 years.

Inside the Palazzo the Grand Staircase was on the right but the
floors above collapsed into the stairwell below.

The views of the Castle were unreal.

Original art murals in the Palace.

A doorway and side murals that need to be restored.

I love this photo. We thought that this window would have originally been glassed in

Doorway after doorway which you can see a series of them in the depths.

The carved stone crown molding.

Outside in the backyard gardens you can
see there are no top floors as they have collapsed.

Close up of the top floors falling out of the back doors.

The far side of the Castle with an wrapped statue due for restoration.

A Street level photo of the very large castle. There are numerous levels to this unique Palazzo.

The Chigi-Albani family sold the Palace grounds to an unscrupulous person who was a money launderer in the 1990s. He let it fall into disrepair and then sold it to the town of Soriano nel Cimino in 2010, and they have been working on it ever since. It would be lovely to see when it is all done.

This is the backside and you can see on the right upper floors there is nothing behind those windows where the insides have caved in. They have their work cut out for them.

Gorgeous fall colors in the back gardens.

A close up shot of an aerial view of the extent of the castle

We continued to explore the area and walked down to a very old little church and we found some other views of the castle.

Soriano nel Cimino is full of medieval staircases throughout the town.

Inside the main church of Soriano

Another angle of beautiful Soriano

Gorgeous carved stone church entrance to old church

The small old church

Cute photo of an old lady hanging her laundry as we walked up the ancient steps to another part of Soriano.

We went for Gelato in the main square and then later for Pizza at the local Pizzeria. They were selling potato pizza and pumpkin pizza which must be an Italian thing. I stuck with the Margarita Pizza.

Bomarzo

The next day we drove to Bomarzo which is a medieval hilltop town fortified by a wall but we first of all went to visit the Parco dei Mostri. Originally I was not very interested in visiting this park but Lisa had picked it out and so we went and it was 16 Euro per person to enter. It turned out that I was wrong and it was awesome. First of all, the park was gorgeous, just walking around was really beautiful. The Orsini family owned the land and one of the Orsini sons in the 1600s commissioned sculptors to carve into the rock figures on the Orsini property. This wonderland area on Orsini land has now become Park of Monsters 400 years later.

Palazzo Orsini in Bormazo

The Orsini family is quite a well-known aristocratic Italian name. They were the VIPs back then and they own Palazzo Orsini that you can visit, but it was closed that day. We enjoyed walking around and seeing all these odd eclectic giant rock sculptures.

Park of Monsters sign

Walking towards our first Monster carving.

These were all huge and you could walk into this one.

Keep in mind this was carved out of a rock.

A more violent carving of a sodomy rape scene

This was the size of a small house.

The tilted house.

The tilted house with Darren and Lisa in the windows.

I loved this one, see the dog behind her.

This carving was very ornate of an elephant carrying a dead Centurion.

Lisa in the mouth of the Monster.

We moved on and realized that if we wanted to eat a late lunch, we had to get in before 3:00 p.m. because Italy shuts down usually from 3:00 to 7:00 depending on the area. If you're hungry, too bad. So Lisa identified a well-rated restaurant in Bomarzo and we headed there and I had the most awesome meal in Italy. I had a homemade ravioli with a truffle mushroom bacon sauce and a mixed salad with a nice glass of red wine.

Deeelishisssss

Leaving the restaurant, I noticed how beautiful the surrounding countryside of Lazio area is.

We moved on to the actual hilltop village and Lisa and I walked around and explored. This was probably my favorite medieval village at this point because the streets were so narrow and it was just so charming and Lisa and I were the only tourists there. That's my idea of a good time. Plus the cats were super friendly. They wanted to be pet and they wanted to be loved. We spent about an hour and a half walking around inside the hilltop village and then we actually walked down where there is a walking path which is also historical with the original cobblestones at the base of the wall. We walked all the way around and we really didn't want to leave. But then I stepped in dog poop and I knew it was time to go.

The Gate to Bomarzo

Outer Wall

I thought this was beautiful.

A side street in Bomarzo

Church is Bomarzo.

The gorgeous streets of Bomarzo

The church door.

The moss covered old stone steps have
so much character.

Lisa walking through the streets of Bomarzo. See the stone steps that have been worn down over the centuries.

Beautiful

Stunning doorway into a large old home.

A cool modern tiled mural of Bomarzo over a homeowner's door.

The gorgeous outer wall of Bomarzo. The stories that this wall could tell??

Countryside of Bomarzo.

Viterbo

We evetually made our way to Viterbo to check out the outdoor hot springs. It was free and we had brought our bathing suits prepared to go and then we thought we would go after our last stop. We continued on to Viterbo historic district. Our area that we were really interested in was called San Pellegrino, it was supposed to be gorgeous and charming just like all the other medieval villages. We parked at the base of this hilltop medieval village and Darren noticed that there was an a sign for the Asensatory which is an elevator in Italian. Lisa and I got in the elevator and went up which saved us a crap load of stairs up and or kilometers up the winding road, up to the to top. The elevator conveniently dumped us off at the church level and we looked around there a bit and made our way to San Pellegrino. It was very charming indeed and we decided to stop and have a glass of wine and headed back down the elevator to find Darren and to drive home and to the grocery store and ATM so that we could pay for all of this.