What to See in Calcata, the Artists' Village an Hour from Rome

At the southern edge of Tuscia there is a village the Italian State declared lost in 1935 — and that artists went on to save. If you are wondering what to see in Calcata, the answer starts with that story: a handful of tuff houses on a crag high above the Treja valley, a single gateway, no cars, workshops and ateliers where garages would be. Some fifty kilometres from Rome and about 40 minutes from the villa, it is the most unusual day out this corner of Italy has to offer.

The «condemned» village the artists saved

Calcata's story resembles no other. In 1935 a special law ordered its evacuation: the tuff crag it stands on was crumbling, and the village was declared unsafe. Its inhabitants moved two kilometres away, to the plateau of Calcata Nuova, and the old village stood empty for thirty years — a ghost town suspended above the woods. Then, at the end of the Sixties, came the unexpected: new surveys certified that the crag was stable and, drawn by houses at token prices and an atmosphere out of time, artists, craftsmen and dreamers arrived from half the world. They restored the houses stone by stone and opened studios, galleries and workshops. Today Calcata lives on this double soul — medieval in its stones, bohemian in spirit — and some call it «the village of the witches».

Inside the village: alleys, workshops and terraces over the void

Calcata can only be entered on foot: you leave the car in the signposted car park before the village, then walk down tuff steps to the gateway. The entrance passage sets the tone: a dim, vaulted alley with moss on its walls, opening onto the little square — the village's living room, where the osteria tables sit beside gallery doors. From there the lanes fan out towards small terraces overlooking the Treja valley: below, only woods, and a river you hear rather than see. The workshops are the character of the place: a tea room with a hundred blends, handmade soap, ceramics, ateliers that double as homes. The village takes little time to walk; the right way to be there is slowly.

Opera Bosco, the museum that grows inside the wood

Just below the village, deep in the green, lies the most Calcatan place of all: Opera Bosco, an open-air contemporary art museum created in 1996 across three hectares of woodland. The works are made only with the raw materials of the wood itself — branches, tuff, leaves — and over time they change, grow and decay: art follows the seasons like everything else in the valley. The route is a real trail with ups and downs: allow an hour and a half and wear walking shoes.

The Treja valley and the Monte Gelato waterfalls

Calcata sits inside the Valle del Treja Regional Park, a valley of gorges and woods that is this corner of Tuscia's best-kept secret. Ten minutes or so by car, towards Mazzano Romano, the river offers its most photographed moment: the Monte Gelato waterfalls, a staircase of falls and pools among the trees, with a nineteenth-century mill and a medieval tower as a backdrop. Entry is free and the meadows around are made for picnics: in the summer heat it is one of the cool places, like those in our guide to staying cool near Rome.

Where to stay: the villa as your base, between Calcata and Tuscia

Calcata is a day trip, and it fits naturally into a stay in Tuscia: from Villa Vacanze Valentina, in Bassano in Teverina, it is about 40 minutes' drive, and on your return the pool puts the day back in order. Within a quarter of an hour of the villa are the other stars — the monsters of Bomarzo and Vitorchiano — and Rome is an hour away, with the A1 exit at Orte fifteen minutes from the door: more ideas are in our guide to what to see near Rome in one day. Families have the two apartments in the villa; couples the Casetta degli Innamorati — Calcata at sunset is a fitting stop on a romantic getaway in Tuscia. And if you are looking for a holiday home with a pool near Rome to explore it all from, write to us.

Photo: Dionphoto, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.