Quarto Spazio proposes a tour in tuscia in 6 days
Day 1 - “The City of the Popes”
Arrival in Viterbo in the early afternoon where we will visit to the “City of the Popes.” Viterbo is also known for its Beautiful Women and Fountains, which preserve a rich historical and artistic heritage. You will also admire the Palazzo dei Papi, the Cathedral and the splendid Piazza San Lorenzo with its many ancient palaces, the Medieval Quarter of San Pellegrino which preserves the original profferli from the XII-XIII century. The profferli or placed in front are typical elements of medieval civil architecture. They consist of a single-flight stairs that runs along the facade of a building. At the top of the staircase is a small loggia which precedes the entrance door to the house. Due to its particularity, this neighbourhood has been chosen as a set for many films and commercials.
Return to the hotel and dinner.
An official guide is available for the duration of the day.
Day 2 - "A fairy-tale palace, a legendary lake ... and an ancient stop along the Via Francigena"
We will meet the guide at the hotel and continue on to Caprarola to visit the 16th century Palazzo Farnese, considered the one of the greatest works of the late Italian Renaissance where the most distinguished Italian masters of the mid-16th century worked. We will walk in the monumental park with its classic Italian gardens, labyrinths, fountains and water features.
At the end, a stretch of the famous straight road that crosses the country creating a great scenic effect for the triumphal arrival to the Palace, which dominates the entire beautiful village from above. A unique example of urban planning from the 1500’s, which led to the inclusion of the village of Caprarola in the list of the 20 most beautiful villages of Italy. We will also walk through the characteristic narrow streets of the historic centre that will allow to discover really suggestive glimpses of the surrounding countryside.
At the end, going by bus along the marvelous Strada Cassia Cimina, which crosses the Natural Reserve of Lake Vico, we will admire a wonderful naturalistic landscape, immersed in the luxurious green crater of a volcanic lake. We will stop at a panoramic point, from which hang gliders are also launched to enjoy the most beautiful view of the lake.
We will continue on to Sutri, an ancient centre of Etruscan origins and a "First Possession of the State of the Church". We will also visit the Archaeological Park composed of the Roman Amphitheatre, the Etruscan Necropolis obtained on a long tuffaceous ridge, and the wonderful Mithraeum, a very ancient place of worship in pagan times onwards transformed into a Christian church, that is completely excavated into the tuff face.
Sutri was a very important stop along the Via Francigena for those pilgrims who traveled on foot, headed for Rome.
Return to the hotel and dinner.
An official guide is available for the duration of the day.
Day 3 - “The Italian Garden, an ancient Oak in the Church, the perched Bel Borgo and the Sacred Wood”
We plan to arrive in Bagnaia at approximately 09:00. Bagnaia was for a long time a holiday resort for noble and important prelates of the church. We will visit the Gardens of the Villa Lante, which was commissioned by card. Giovanni Francesco Gambara based on the planning of Vignola. Villa Lante is a splendid example of a sixteenth-century residential architecture that modulates the rich forest landscape through wonderful terraced Italian Gardens and playful fountains and other innovative water features.
After we will visit the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Quercia designed by Giuliano Sangallo, which preserves precious work such as the terracottas by Andrea dalla Robbia, the great Baroque organ, the inlaid coffered ceiling designed by Antonio Sangallo the Younger. and painted in gold, the gold painted marble temple houses an Ancient Oak from the 1400’s with a simple tile still set on it that captures the image of the Madonna and Child. The originality of this place is that it has built around an oak tree and has become one of the most important religious sanctuaries in Italy.
We will continue on to the nearby and splendid Vitorchiano called “the City of the Faithful.” Here many important historical events have taken place. An ancient Etruscan-Roman settlement, Vitorchiano stands perched on a high plateau. We will walk in the almost intact medieval village to admire its picturesque streets, precious spindle fountains and houses with finely crafted portals.
We will proceed on to Bomarzo to visit to the famous Monster Park commissioned by Vicinio Orsini in the mid-16th century, to amaze anyone who enters. A pleasant and fun walk through the secular vegetation that hides unexpected gigantic figures of monsters, gargoyles, nymphs, animals and strange architectures.
Return to the hotel and dinner.
An official guide is available for the duration of the day.
Day 4 - “…here the Etruscans laughed”
Arrival at around 9:00 in Tarquinia, which has always been the emblem of Etruscan civilization, and one of the most important centres. We will visit the National Museum that hosts an important collection of precious archaeological finds from this area. The museum is in the sixteenth-century Palazzo Vitelleschi, an authentic Gothic-Renaissance architectural masterpiece. We will visit the Etruscan necropolis an UNESCO heritage site that contains the wonderful Painted Tombs.
We will continue on to Tuscania and visit the two splendid examples of Romanesque-Lombard architecture: the Church of San Maria Maggiore and the Church of San Pietro. We will also walk throughout the characteristic and very beautiful historical centre.
Return to the hotel and dinner.
An official guide is available for the duration of the day.
Day 5 - “from the dying city to the suggestive lake”
We arrive in Civita di Bagnoregio around 9.30 Civita is known as "the dying city": a place of heart-breaking beauty situated on an isolated mass of tuff in the middle of the Valle dei Calanchi and connected to the rest of the world by a narrow catwalk. They say that “Going to Civita is like embarking on a journey back in time, where everything has stopped”.
We will ascend towards the ancient inhabited area which dominates one of the most suggestive panoramas of the famous 'crete'. We will visit the Cathedral, the site of the birthplace of S. Bonaventura and the rest of the solitary and silent village, a splendid testimony of the ancient Etruscan civilization, which Civita was an important centre.
We will continue on to the Lake Bolsena and have a lunch based on lake fish in an excellent restaurant on the lake shore. In the early afternoon we will take a sight-seeing excursion by boat for a duration of about one hour. Upon our return we will walk within the picturesque historic centre of Bolsena and visit the 4th century Church of S. Cristina and its sacred Grotto. The sacred stone of S. Cristina is kept within the Chapel of the Eucharistic Miracle. This sacred stone captures a holy miracle that occurred in 1263 where the saint’s blood and imprints appeared.
Return to the hotel and dinner.
An official guide is available for the duration of the day.
Day 6 - After breakfast the participants depart for their return trip home.
For info costs and reservations:
Quarto Spazio - Via F.Petrarca, 22 _ Civita Castellana(VT)
Tel. 0761.516188 - 0761.599297
info@quartospazio.com
www.quartospazio.com
