CALCATA ITALY, A Once Dying Town

And Why it is the Hippest Place to Visit this Holiday

My first impression of Calcata was that it was old; an ancient town with an ancient story to tell.

Just as you enter, the walls are or Tufo, a volcanic rock that many homes in the region use to build. There are pits and holes all over, like on those ancient battle fortresses that have weathered wars and time and the elements. Or maybe the walls are made from coral; they seem so solid despite the worn appearance and when I consider the village is over 3000 years old, I am drawn to the latter opinion.

Then there’s the rock-solid and dark oak doors at the entrances of homes you pass, and the cobblestone streets with cute road signs at every corner. The narrow streets themselves, called carrugio, are interesting; the hill village has many of these streets going up and down levels all over the place.

Navigating them while taking turns to let others pass was an interesting experience. You turn a corner and another tourist freezes, caught in your camera with a look of fascination and happiness they don’t usually let others see. Then they smile, make a face, or laugh, even happier to know their moment has been immortalized by you and out there in the internet for ever and ever an ever…

Calcata is like a little hamlet set right on the top of a volcanic spur in the middle of the valle del Treja. This alone offers the village a commanding view of the valley below – and of some of the most panoramic views anywhere in the world. The green around the village is so much and so encouraging I was torn; do I like that they recovered the town and sooner or later she will turn into another industrial town like back home? Or do I be grateful it was human presence and activities that revitalized the little village?

I aim to let you know more about Calcata, of the best way to get there, places to sleep, fun activities, and the top thinks to do while in Calcata, Italy.

A Short History of Calcata Italy

There once were a people known as the Faliscans who inhabited the Treja Valley, and they built quite the number of towns and villages on the Tufa mounds and hills as a defensive measure. Falerii, Narce, Nepi, Calcata, Monte Li Santi are just a few of the ones we know today, and of these, only Calcata and Nepi remain.

Most were destroyed by volcanic activity – either directly, or by government in the 1960s trying to reduce the damage. Some were destroyed by the Romans during their conquest of everything close to Rome. You see, the Faliscans picked the wrong side during these wars of conquest, chosing the Etruscans over the ancient powerhouse. Today, most know of the Romans alone, case in point, how we only know of Calcata’s graces very recently.

Apparently, the 16^th century was to imbue Calcata, Italy, with some drama worthy of more than a footnote in the annals of history. When German mercenaries under Emperor Charles V sacked Rome, one of them allegedly carried off a piece of the foreskin of Jesus from his circumcision from the Basilica of San Giovanni. He got caught in Calcata, and the villagers first hid it in a cavern, only bringing it out every once in a while to celebrate.

Over the years, Popes in Rome would refuse to ask for the foreskin back, with the main reason being that it was fate that led to the holy relic landing in Calcata. Another was that there were another 30+ relics of the same – baby Jesus’ foreskin – all over Christendom!

It is lost now, having mysteriously disappeared in the 1980s…

Things To Do In Calcata, Vecchia

1. Walk the maze-like stairs and carrugio

So, one of the fun things you can do is walk the maze-like streets and stairs of Calcata. I felt they were special because of how they confuse you on where exactly you were in the village, to say nothing of the small hill.

Some of the streets remain on a horizontal level, and one of the interesting experiences is to walk on one of the carrugio. It feels as if the walls narrow and close in on you, only for them to open up into vast expansive air and the valley green below. Then there are sections inside the village where the street and steps visibly drop and open up into another section of the village only for you to find yourself right on the turrets and battlements of the village walls themselves.

It is a town where you ascend from the valley below just to reach the village entrance, then you have to descend steps to enter the village proper. From the outside looking on, Calcata looks alone and isolated from the world, with so much vegetation and green around her you barely know how to ascend into the village. From the inside, she is so cozy and welcoming you understand why hordes of hippies and artists flocked to the village in the 1960s after decades of abandonment.

2. Day Trip from Rome, Florence, and Milan

Don’t get me wrong, Calcata has more than enough gifts to share for you to spend long there. But it also takes a refined taste to enjoy Calcata to its fullest. For me, it was the art scene, with the little village flooded by artists in the 1970s. Compounded by the nature scene just beyond the walls, Calcata Italy was more than enough to fill my day.

For those who need more of a fix of Italy, there are ways to get more out of less.

Calcata is not far from either Florence.

Especially Rome. There are many, headed for Viterbo, that consider Calcata a must drop-by place to see.

In fact, Calcata is a favorite tourist destination for those thinking about day trips from Rome and Florence. For the more hardcore, a road trip from Milan towards Calcata is not off the table.

Day trips from Rome can fill a day with medieval Italy. Just 45 min from Rome, Calcata is just next to Mazzano Romano, another quaint little village. This was an interesting stop while on the way to Calcata because they have these 300 –odd Faliscan era masks and other pieces of funerary votives in the museum MAVNA museum.

There is another museum in Civita Castellana just 13km from Calcata and to the north. The Archaeological Museum of the Agro Falisco is home to many curios as well, from a strange bronze tool apparently used to separate horses tied to a chariot – but looking more like an ancient torture device really – to ancient musical devices called oinochoi and
Greek vases called kylix.

Then a ride across Tuscia Romana gets you to a little fishing village north of Lake Bracciano called Trevignano Romano, another medieval village with the added spice of a ruin of a medieval fort, a promenade across cafes, pastry and gift shops. A click of the heels and you are back in Rome before sundown. Here’s an article on 10 Beautiful day trips around Rome that includes Calcata, worth checking out the other day trips.

…Now, more of Calcata…

A Bohemian Village

Modern Calcata, Italy, was borne out of the need to get away from the evils of modernization destroying the authentic and unique, industries replacing naure with noise and smokestacks, and cars spewing tons of fumes into the air.

In the 1960s, artists chose Calcata for its isolation, its picturesque site, the panoramic view of the untainted valley, and the iconic medieval feel of the village.

These artists struggled at first, bringing back to life a village that time and erosion almost forgot. Washing their clothes at the village fountain, arranging for groups to go shopping; Calcata was now home to a new commune of like-minded people seeking to wrought from the new world of industrialization, mechanization, and everything else from processed food to processed art.

An Artist’s Paradise

The flood of artists in Calcata, Italy, gave birth to a commune that put its love for art above all else.

A typical house in Calcata will retain its medieval feel. The Tufo rock from which they are built looks ancient and worn for all that they have withstood centuries of tiny tremors over the years. Many go unpainted, the entire village a grey eminence save for the low of evening lights on doorways and doorsteps.

There is a reason Calcata is also named the Village of the Arts. On some residential houses, you will find that the owners put their love and time into making their homes beautiful. There was this door with a mural of a woman in blue staring out into the street. The door was metal, painted in calm blues and other light colors. I think it was the most Bohemian thing I have ever seen on or in a home!

Another thing you will love about Calcata is the love for vines, floral plants, and other bits and pieces of nature spread out through the village. Many doorways and alleys are marked by vines crawling across and around homes. Some come from potted plants, others seem to grow out of the very rock in the walls. Coupled with the grey stone, I feel the deign choice is too deliberate and artfully done to be coincidence. The artists are to blame!

Opera Bosco

The Opera Bosco Museo di Arte Nella Natura is a nature preserve filled with art pieces wrought from the raw materials of nature herself. The idea, proposed and initiated by Anne Demijttenaere and Constantine Morosin, was to create a natural park whose art would come from nature’s own bounties. https://www.operabosco.eu/

There are natural vines, writhing around trees of twisted to create shapes. Trees stripped of bark to bare their red inner cores stand separate in another section, their limbs looking like stick-figure representations of man. Ancient rocks covered in moss abound the little park, looking like seats and tables where tourists get to sit, relax, breathe in the clean air, and think about how their ancestors could lie such fulfilling lives without the army of mechanical and technological devices around us.

Museums of Farm Stuff

The Museo Della Civilta Contadina is a museum we found on the streets of Calcata. It has everything wooden and ‘belonging’ on a farm you could imagine.

Adzes, sickles, ploughs, bucket, rakes, shears, grain reapers, hoe heads, axe heads, pans, mallets…literally so many things I do not have names for them.

I don’t think they are archeological finds. Many look to new and I was too embarrassed to ask. As replicas though, the woods they used looks grainy and deep, like you would see in farm implements used and cared for over years of use and storage.

It was a small museum, but I liked the sense of everything coming together in the place.

Bakeries and Crafting

I loved how the artists in Calcata, Italy, try to share their crafts with tourists. More importantly, how Calcata seems to have drawn artists from all over the world and Italy. La Cartonera is a bakery run by an Argentine! She uses recycled materials to create unique jewelry that she sells very cheap, making for some good artifacts to take home from a visit.
Carmen’s Bakery is run by a Sardinian, and like the other artists, her products are baked in a wood oven, adding that woody taste to her stuff.

Finally there is the Moonlab, with everything you could imagine designed from a Moon theme. There are pillows, lamps, paintings, mirrors and loads of other stuff. The best part about these is they are authentic stuff, made by the artist’s own hand.

Where to Eat

Calcata is small, and while tourists do flock there, I don’t think the numbers or interests are enough to operate many full-time restaurants. Even so, there are quite the number of restaurants in and around Calcata. The plus side is they all offer local foods, made through specialty recipes and traditions, making and using marmalades, vegetables, pecorino cheese and porcini mushrooms, chestnuts, pasta, roast chicken and grilled pork chops aplenty.

Terra Mia is outside Calcata but worth the side-mission because of their wild boar ragu.

Opera is right on the main square and serve sweets and pasta, while Sala Da Tè Calcata have very choice cakes we had with tea back home.

La Grotta dei Gernogli would be my recommendation. The restaurant is inside a cave, is beautifully decorated in mosaics, and have a vegan menu on top of it all!

Places to stay

Maison Chanely on the via deglii Americani is very spacious, with wonderful wood-themed décor, nature, and a spiritual feeling.

SopraBosco Calcata Art & Design Apartment definitely has artistic owners and provided a wonderful encore to our experience of the village.

officina alchemica, Botanica Calcata and Hagakure were also good suggestions I got from other tourists touring Calcata Italy.