Lazio · Viterbo
Calcata
A tufa-cliff village forty kilometers north of Rome, condemned and abandoned in the 1930s, then occupied by artists and never left.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Calcata is on our list
It holds Bandiera Arancione and Città della Nocciola.
The nearest town with a letter is Caprarola, No. 63, 20 km away.
Subscribe and you get Calcata's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 8 min from Rome
- Population
- 902
- J11°
- F14°
- M15°
- A19°
- M24°
- J29°
- J34°
- A33°
- S27°
- O22°
- N16°
- D12°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Calcata sits on a tufa cliff above the Treja valley, forty kilometers north of Rome. The Anguillara family walled and castled it in the 13th century. In 1935 the Italian government condemned the village as structurally unsafe and ordered residents to move down to the new town in the valley below.
Most did. The empty houses on the cliff were re-occupied by artists, hippies and a small bohemian community from the late 1960s onward; they cleared the alleys, opened studios and bars, and turned an officially uninhabitable village into one of Lazio's strangest functioning settlements. The Holy Foreskin relic of Jesus was kept in the parish church here from 1527, taken from the Sancta Sanctorum during the Sack of Rome, and was an active object of pilgrimage until the relic was stolen in 1983 and the Vatican suppressed its cult. Calcata Vecchia is now a single street of workshops on a cliff edge above the Parco della Valle del Treja.
How to get there
From Rome Fiumicino (FCO), about 1 h 12 min by car.
Naples (NAP) is about 3 h away.
By car from the center of Perugia 1 h 57 min or Siena 2 h 29 min.
Coming by train into Roma Termini? Calcata is about 1 h 10 min away by road.
Every town within reach of Rome Fiumicino airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Calcata Vecchia
Medieval village on a tufa cliff, condemned in 1935 and re-occupied from the 1960s by artists and craftspeople.
Castello Anguillara
13th-century baronial castle of the Anguillara family, partially restored, now owned by the Treja Valley park.
Chiesa del Santissimo Nome di Gesù
Parish church that held the Holy Foreskin relic from 1527 until its theft in 1983.
Parco Regionale Valle del Treja
Protected valley below the village, with trails along the Treja river and the Monte Gelato waterfalls.
Opera Bosco
Open-air museum of land art in the woods below Calcata, founded in 1996, work made entirely from forest materials.
From the guides
Where to eat
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
La PiazzettaTrattoria
La Piazzetta holds one Gambero Rosso prawn.
Before you sit down: how to order at a restaurant, how to spot a tourist trap, what aperitivo is and how the Italian bar works.
Living here
Could you live here?
Calcata is at the end of the road.
- A village of 902. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Rignano Flaminio, is 19 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Guidonia Montecelio, a city of 89,011, is 1 h 2 min by car. Further than our 30 to 60 minutes, a long way for the hospital visit or the monthly shopping.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
- Population 902, down 1.2% since 2015
- Nearest city Guidonia Montecelio, 1 h 2 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Civita Castellana, 9 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €700 to €1,000 per m² to buy, €2.30 to €3.20 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Remote
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 95% of homes
- No primary school in the comune's register
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Rome Ciampino airport (CIA), 1 h 3 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Rome, 1 h 8 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
10% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Nigeria and Morocco, against 9% across Italy. There are 248 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 37% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Viterbo province ranks 71st of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Civita Castellana, 9 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Rome, 37 km away. The nearest children's emergency room is in Rome, 37 km away. The nearest IB school is Acorn International School, 25 km as the crow flies. There are 4 within 30 km.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 1.06% a year in property tax, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds 0.8% to your income tax. 7% pensioner tax: this town is not in a qualifying area.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Lazio spends about €2,270 a month, €580 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €647 a year for water, on the Lazio average.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone D, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from November 1 to April 15, up to 12 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. The national maps show no residents in a high or medium flood zone. 6% live in a zone rated high or very high for landslides.
These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.
Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.
Known for
ARTISTS' VILLAGE
Re-occupied by artists from the late 1960s after the 1935 evacuation order; one of Italy's longest-running bohemian communities.
HOLY FORESKIN
Relic of the Circumcision held in the parish church from 1527 until its theft in 1983; cult later suppressed by the Vatican.
THE TUFA CLIFF
Vertical volcanic cliff above the Treja valley, the geological reason the government ordered the village evacuated in 1935.
DOP ZONES
The commune lies inside the Nocciola Romana and Tuscia DOP production zones.
Common questions
- What is Calcata known for?
- Calcata is a tufa-cliff village forty kilometers north of Rome, condemned and abandoned in the 1930s, then occupied by artists and never left.
- Where is Calcata?
- Calcata is a comune in the province of Viterbo, in Lazio, at 220 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Calcata?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Rome Ciampino (CIA), about 1 h 3 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Perugia to Calcata?
- About 1 h 57 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Calcata?
- Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 34 degrees, and December the wettest, with about 11 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Calcata?
- Apricale, Paciano and Zavattarello.
- How many people live in Calcata?
- 902 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Calcata a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Calcata is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Rignano Flaminio, is 19 min away. The nearest city, Guidonia Montecelio, is 1 h 2 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Civita Castellana, 9 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 95% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 220 m
- Population: 902
- Surface area: 7.63 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
The ranked lists
Lists Calcata appears in
- The best hidden hill towns that eat well in the province of ViterboViterbo provincehill towneats wellhidden6 towns · smallest 902 residents
- The best small towns inside a nature park in LazioLazioinside a parksmall8 towns · smallest 217 residents
- The 9 best hidden hill towns that eat well within 90 minutes of TerniNear Ternihill townwithin 90 mineats wellhidden9 towns · smallest 902 residents · closest 16 min away
- The best towns that eat well in the province of ViterboViterbo provinceeats well9 towns · smallest 902 residents
- The best hill towns inside a nature park in LazioLaziohill towninside a park10 towns · smallest 217 residents
- The best towns known for what they grow within 75 minutes of RomeNear Romewithin 75 minproduce zone10 towns · smallest 902 residents · closest 31 min away
Near here, with a letter
- Written about. No. 63.
Caprarola
Province: Viterbo
A Cimini hill town above Lago di Vico, dominated by the pentagonal Villa Farnese that Vignola built for the Farnese cardinals between 1559 and 1573.
20 km away
- Written about. No. 64.
Capranica
Province: Viterbo
A medieval hill town on the old Via Cassia, taken by the Anguillara family in 1305 and remembered as the place Petrarch stayed in 1337.
21 km away
Our guide
Calcata is in our Tuscia guide
Tuscia: the towns, when to go, how to get there
The Tuscia guide came out of the letter. Letters from the towns we visit. Free.
Read the guide: The land Rome took twice. 16 towns, the drive and train times, the months, where to eat and sleep.
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.