Tuscia, Italy: the towns, the sea, when to go and how to get there

The country north of Rome: the province of Viterbo and the old Etruscan coast, a volcanic plateau of soft tuff, crater lakes and hazelnut groves. Three towns cluster round Lake Vico, Viterbo is the city, the Etruscan tombs at Tarquinia are the road back to Rome, and almost nobody comes.

16 towns

The towns of Tuscia

1 on the water, 15 towns inland. Each card opens the town's own page, with the drive time from the nearest city and whether the train stops there.

✷ We've been
Ronciglione
Where: Inland
1 h 4 min from Roma · station · 8,447 people
A tufa-brick borgo above Lake Vico, fortified by the Prefects of Vico and crowned Borgo dei Borghi in 2023.
✷ We've been
Caprarola
Where: Inland
1 h 7 min from Terni · 5,155 people
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.
✷ We've been
Capranica
Where: Inland
1 h 12 min from Roma · station · 6,302 people
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.
Sutri
Where: Inland
57 min from Roma · 6,663 people
An Etruscan and Roman town on a tuff spur, with a rock-cut amphitheater carved straight from the volcanic stone of the Cimini.
Viterbo
Where: Inland
58 min from Terni · station · 65,949 people
The medieval capital of the Tuscia, papal seat for five popes between 1257 and 1281 and home to the longest conclave in Church history.
Vitorchiano
Where: Inland
53 min from Terni · station · 5,256 people
A peperino borgo built on a single volcanic boulder near Viterbo.
Bomarzo
Where: Inland
48 min from Terni · station · 1,674 people
The Tuscia village below a garden built by a grieving condottiero for his dead wife, all stone monsters and no apology for it.
Bassano in Teverina
Where: Inland
36 min from Terni · 1,260 people
A tufa-spur borgo of 1,260 above the Tiber valley between Lazio and Umbria, with a clock tower that hides an eleventh-century animated bell tower.
Montefiascone
Where: Inland
1 h 15 min from Terni · station · 12,955 people
A 590-meter hill town on the highest hill of the Volsini, source of Est! Est!! Est!!!.
Bolsena
Where: Inland
1 h 21 min from Terni · 3,708 people
A medieval town at 350 meters on the eastern shore of Europe's largest volcanic lake, where a Bohemian priest reported a Eucharistic miracle in 1263.
Capodimonte
Where: Inland
1 h 14 min from Terni · 1,667 people
The lakefront Farnese stronghold on a peninsula jutting into Europe's largest volcanic crater lake, with an extra-virgin olive oil tradition recognized by Città dell'Olio.
Bagnoregio
Where: Inland
1 h 9 min from Terni · 3,364 people
The Etruscan-founded hill town in Tuscia whose frazione Civita di Bagnoregio sits on an eroding tuff plateau, reachable only by footbridge.
Acquapendente
Where: Inland
1 h 36 min from Terni · 5,266 people
The northernmost town in Lazio, at 420 meters above the Paglia, named in 964 for its waterfalls.
Calcata
Where: Inland
1 h 6 min from Terni · 905 people
A tufa-cliff village forty kilometers north of Rome, condemned and abandoned in the 1930s, then occupied by artists and never left.
Oriolo Romano
Where: Inland
1 h 15 min from Roma · station · 3,702 people
A planned sixteenth-century village in the Sabatini hills, laid out in 1560 by a Santacroce nobleman on land cleared from an ancient beech wood.
Tarquinia
Where: On the water
1 h 17 min from Roma · station · 15,942 people
An Etruscan capital on a Maremma ridge whose 6,000 rock-cut tombs at Monterozzi hold the largest body of pre-Roman painting in the Mediterranean.

Air, rail, road

Getting there, and around

Fly to Rome, take the train, or drive. Road minutes from the catalogue.

By air

Rome (FCO)1 h 34 min to Ronciglione

By train

Ronciglione
A station in the commune
Capranica
A station in the commune
Viterbo
A station in the commune
Vitorchiano
A station in the commune
Bomarzo
A station in the commune
Montefiascone
A station in the commune
Oriolo Romano
A station in the commune
Tarquinia
A station in the commune

No station: Caprarola, Sutri, Bassano in Teverina, Bolsena, Capodimonte, Bagnoregio, Acquapendente, Calcata.

By car

Ronciglione1 h 4 min from Roma
Caprarola1 h 7 min from Terni
Capranica1 h 12 min from Roma
Sutri57 min from Roma
Viterbo58 min from Terni
Vitorchiano53 min from Terni
Bomarzo48 min from Terni
Bassano in Teverina36 min from Terni
Montefiascone1 h 15 min from Terni
Bolsena1 h 21 min from Terni
Capodimonte1 h 14 min from Terni
Bagnoregio1 h 9 min from Terni
Acquapendente1 h 36 min from Terni
Calcata1 h 6 min from Terni
Oriolo Romano1 h 15 min from Roma
Tarquinia1 h 17 min from Roma

Climate, sea, calendar

When to go

The months, measured. Measured at Ronciglione: the daytime high, the sea, the rain days.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Day °C	10	13	14	17	22	27	32	31	25	20	15	11
Sea °C
Rain days	10	7	9	10	12	10	3	6	10	10	10	11

The tinted months are the comfortable ones for the day, and the ones where the sea reaches 20 degrees.

1 town on the water

The Etruscan coast

Flat, and honestly a little boring; the tombs behind it are not. Tarquinia's necropolis is the reason to turn off the road to Rome.

Tarquinia
Station in town · 1 h 17 min from Roma

Our tables first, then the guides

Where to eat and sleep

What the printed guides rate along this coast, with the guide named beside each place.

What the guides rate

Somebody else's recommendations, the guide named beside each. The town pages hold the full lists.

Ronciglione

Riva Felice Ristorante
Gambero Rosso 2 Gamberi

Caprarola

Trattoria del Cimino Ristorante
Gambero Rosso 3 Gamberi · Slow Food Chiocciola · Michelin Selected
Vineria Vignola Salumeria e cucina Ristorante
Gambero Rosso 2 Bottiglie

Sutri