Viterbo

Viterbo probably has Etruscan origins, but the first record of the town itself, as Castrum Viterbii, dates from the eighth century AD. The Lombard king Desiderius fortified it in 773, and it later passed into the Papal States. By 1095 it was a free comune, and in 1172 it began to expand at the expense of its neighbours, destroying the old town of Ferento. In this period it was one of the most important cities of central Italy, with a population of almost 60,000.

Popes in trouble in Rome found refuge here, and from 1257 to 1281 Viterbo was the papal residence. Alexander IV died in the city; Urban IV, Gregory X, John XXI, Nicholas III and Martin IV were elected here. The vacancy that followed the death of Clement IV in 1268 lasted almost three years, and the election ended only after the roof of the palace was removed — the origin of the closed conclave. After citizens burst into the cathedral during the conclave of 1281 and seized two cardinals, the popes stayed away for 86 years.

The city then fell to the Di Vico family until papal troops restored control in the late 14th century, and it became a secondary town of the Papal States. It joined Italy in 1871 and became a provincial capital in 1927. Allied bombing between July 1943 and June 1944 destroyed or badly damaged a third of the city and killed 1,017 civilians. In March 2024 an unexploded wartime bomb found on a building site led to the evacuation of more than 30,000 people.

The city's year turns on Santa Rosa, its patron saint. On the evening of 3 September a hundred men, the Facchini di Santa Rosa, lift a lit tower about 30 metres high onto their shoulders and carry it from Porta Romana through the darkened streets, stopping at churches along the way, before a final steep climb to the church where the saint's body is kept. A new Macchina is designed every few years, and the procession is recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage. Saint Lawrence is the city's male patron.

Viterbo's look is distinctive: houses of dark volcanic stone, a near-complete circuit of medieval walls with gated entrances, and the outside staircases called profferli, which are found here in unusual numbers. Peperino, the local grey stone, and pottery remain part of the economy, and a ceramics museum in Palazzo Brugiotti shows the work of the Tuscia from the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

The University of Tuscia, founded in 1979, and the Academy of Fine Arts give the city a student population, and it hosts a range of festivals, among them Caffeina, the Tuscia Film Fest and Tuscia in Jazz. The local dialect is Viterbese, in which the city's name is Veterbe.

About 67,000 people live in the municipality, which is one of the largest in Lazio by area and takes in villages such as Bagnaia, La Quercia and San Martino al Cimino. At the end of 2023 just over a tenth of residents were foreign nationals. Most people live outside the walls, in districts that grew from the 1920s onwards — Cappuccini was the first, followed by Pilastro — while Santa Barbara and Riello, developed from the late 1990s, are mainly commercial.

The economy rests on agriculture, along with pottery, peperino stone and wood. The Italian gold reserves are kept in the city, and the armed forces are a large presence: the Army Aviation command and training school and the Army's NCO school are based here, beside the airfield opened in 1936. The university adds a student population.

The rhythm is that of a provincial capital: mornings in the shops and offices of the centre, a long lunch, and evening walks in the streets of the centre. Thermal water is part of local life too, and residents use the free open-air pools near the Bullicame through the year.

Viterbo's best-known dish is acquacotta, "cooked water", a poor family's soup from the Maremma and northern Lazio. In the local version, wild herbs, garlic, potatoes and onions are cooked in water and the soup is finished with a little olive oil and pieces of stale bread; some cooks add eggs or guanciale, cured pork cheek. Canata is a bread salad similar to panzanella.

Fieno canepinese, from the small town of Canepina in the Cimini hills, is a handmade egg pasta like fettuccine but cut only a few millimetres wide, served with a tomato sauce cooked with sausage and onion. The trattorias of the San Pellegrino quarter and the streets around Piazza delle Erbe serve these dishes alongside Roman pastas and pizza.

Nearby Montefiascone makes the wine Est! Est!! Est!!!, whose name comes from a tale about a travelling bishop's wine scout. In the old city, the cafés and bars along Via Cavour and around the central squares fill up for coffee in the morning and drinks in the evening.