What is Ronciglione known for?

Won the RAI Borgo dei Borghi national competition in April 2023, the tenth edition of the program. Five kilometers north sits the highest volcanic lake in Italy at 507 meters, a protected reserve since 1982. Nine contrade race riderless horses through town at the feast of San Bartolomeo in late August, a Palio descended from the sixteenth-century Carnival.

When is the best time to visit Ronciglione?

Apr–Oct. April through June brings the Cimini hills into green, hazelnut groves in flower and Lake Vico cool enough for the morning. September and October are the harvest months, dry, mild, with the air clear enough to see Monte Cimino from the Rocca. July and August touch the upper thirties and fill the lake with Romans on weekends. November through March is quiet. The Carnival in February or early March is the exception: three days of allegorical floats and the Corse a Vuoto, granted by Paul III in the sixteenth century and still drawing visitors from across the province.

Where is Ronciglione?

Ronciglione is a comune in the province of Viterbo, Lazio region of Italy, about 59 kilometers from Roma.

How do I get to Ronciglione?

From Roma, Ronciglione is roughly 59 km by road.

Lazio · Viterbo

Ronciglione

A tufa-brick borgo above Lake Vico, fortified by the Prefects of Vico and crowned Borgo dei Borghi in 2023.

Known for

BORGO DEI BORGHI 2023
Won the RAI Borgo dei Borghi national competition in April 2023, the tenth edition of the program.
LAKE VICO
Five kilometers north sits the highest volcanic lake in Italy at 507 meters, a protected reserve since 1982.
CORSE A VUOTO
Nine contrade race riderless horses through town at the feast of San Bartolomeo in late August, a Palio descended from the sixteenth-century Carnival.
DOP ZONES
The commune lies inside the Nocciola Romana and Tuscia DOP production zones.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

The festa: Bartolomeo, 25 August

Why come

The town stands on a tufa spur, five kilometers from the lake, with the Cimini hills and their hazelnut groves closing in around it on every side. The first record of it dates to 1103. The Prefetti di Vico held it before the Farnese took it as a Duchy, and the sixteenth-century pontiff who granted the town its Carnival did so during that same passage of rule from prefects to dukes.

The fortress's towers control the single natural approach to the historic center, so the medieval town and its defenses are really one structure: whoever held the towers held the road in. Everything built afterward, the cathedral, the contrade, the Carnival itself, sits inside that same defended perimeter. What the RAI title recognized in 2023 was less a single monument than that whole arrangement still intact: a fortified approach, a walled center, and a lake and hills that have not changed shape around it.

We've been

Feature from our free newsletter

Ronciglione | Baptism into the Other Italy

Suddenly, we weren't running around. Ronciglione has nothing, and I mean zero things to show you. It's a pretty generic medieval town near Rome. It doesn't have a big piazza. There is a gate, a duomo, 2-3 main streets, and pretty much that's it. Yet, it was the center of our attention at that time. After spending just a few days there, we went back to Rome without wrinkles, with an oddly weird smile on our faces.

From the Ronciglione letter, August 2026

Read the full feature on anywhereitaly.com

What to see

Rocca dei Borgia (I Torrioni)
Medieval fortress of the Prefects of Vico, twin round towers guarding the only natural approach to the centro storico.
Duomo dei Santi Pietro e Caterina
Baroque cathedral of 1671, polychrome marble altar, fifteenth-century triptych by a Viterbo painter, wooden statue of San Bartolomeo.
Lago di Vico
Volcanic lake ringed by the Cimini hills, its waters filling the crater below the level of the town on its spur.
Borgo medievale
Tufa-brick centro storico reached only through the towers of the Rocca, its streets closed in by the same walls the Prefects raised.
Carnevale di Ronciglione
Three-day carnival granted by Pope Paul III Farnese in the sixteenth century, with the riderless Corse a Vuoto horse races.

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Plan your trip

Through the year

What happens here

Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.

Palio di Ronciglionehistorical re-enactment
usually held in July. Lazio Nascosto - Eventi nel Lazio (monthly)

Living here

Population 8,447
Commuter belti
Pharmacy in town
High school within a 30-minute drive
Train station in the comune
Nearest airport Rome, 1 h 34 min drive
Regional capital Roma, 1 h 4 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

The numbers

Elevation: 441 m
Population: 8,447
Surface area: 52.53 km²

On the map

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These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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