Isola del Liri

Isola del Liri is built on an actual island, where the Liri river splits into two arms and the two arms fall over a limestone shelf into the lower valley. The Cascata Grande is 27 meters high and lands inside the historic center, fifty meters from the Castello Boncompagni-Viscogliosi, the fortified palace above it. The second fall, Cascata del Valcatoio, is partly diverted for hydropower.

From the 19th century the river ran the paper mills, felt mills and wool mills that gave the town the name Manchester of Italy: the Fibreno-Lefebvre mill exported to North America. The paper industry collapsed in the late 20th century. The town responded with the Liri Blues Festival, started in 1988 by a local businessman, Luciano Duro, to draw attention back to a place that had lost its trade; it became one of Europe's longer-running free blues festivals. The Cammino di San Benedetto walking route passes through.