What to see near Rome in a day: 5 Tuscia villages an hour's drive away

Most people living in Rome don't know it: just past the ring road, somewhere between one hour and one hour forty of driving, the Tuscia begins — the countryside straddling Lazio and Umbria that guidebooks barely mention. Tufa and peperino villages, badlands that look like another planet, squares where time stopped in the Middle Ages. Here is what to see near Rome in a day: five villages in the Tuscia, each different from the next, told by someone who lives here year-round.

Why the Tuscia, and not the usual day trips

The Castelli Romani, Ostia, Tivoli: the classic day trips from Rome are crowded and everyone knows them. The Tuscia, around Viterbo, is a little further, but it is also more genuine — real, inhabited villages, several ranked among Italy's Most Beautiful Villages, where you can still find yourself the only visitor in the square. Each of the five below has its own story, and we have written a full guide to each one.

The 5 villages to see

1. Bomarzo, the Monster Park — The Sacro Bosco of Bomarzo is the strangest sculpture garden of the Renaissance: ogres you walk into through their mouths, a war elephant, a house built deliberately crooked. From Rome it's about 105 km, just over an hour by car.

2. Vitorchiano, the Hanging Village — Medieval houses carved from the same peperino cliff they stand on, and below the belvedere, the only full-size Moai in the world outside Easter Island. From Rome, about 99 km and an hour and a quarter.

3. Bassano in Teverina — An Orange Flag village of the Touring Club, hiding an architectural secret inside its clock tower: a Romanesque bell tower walled up for four centuries. It's also the closest of the five to Rome — about 89 km, just over an hour.

4. Celleno, the ghost village — Abandoned after centuries of earthquakes and landslides, today it's one of the most photographed villages in the Tuscia: empty lanes, the Orsini Castle, and the silence of the Valle dei Calanchi. From Rome it's about 116 km and an hour and forty — worth allowing a little extra driving time.

5. Civita di Bagnoregio, the dying town — The most photographed village in Lazio, reachable only on foot across a bridge suspended over the badlands. It's the farthest from Rome of the five, about 128 km and an hour and forty-five, but also the most cinematic: the full guide covers everything, tickets included.

How to plan the day

Trying to see all five in a single day doesn't really work: they're spread over a wide area, and the whole point of the Tuscia is not rushing. Better to split them into two groups. Bomarzo, Vitorchiano and Bassano are just minutes apart, near the Orte motorway exit — a day trip from Rome can easily cover all three, morning at the Monster Park and afternoon between the other two. Celleno and Civita, toward the Valle dei Calanchi, deserve a separate day, or better, an extra night: driving back to Rome after sunset in Civita is a long haul, and the villages feel completely different in the evening, once the coach groups have gone.

If you'd rather stay for the weekend

For those who don't want to drive back to the city at night, right in the middle of these five villages there is a holiday home with pool near Rome: Villa Vacanze Valentina, in Bassano in Teverina, just over an hour from the city with the Orte motorway exit 15 minutes away. From here, Bomarzo is 10 minutes, Vitorchiano a quarter of an hour, the gardens of Villa Lante in Bagnaia about twenty minutes, Celleno and Civita within 45 — the most convenient base for seeing all five villages without driving back and forth from Rome every day. And if the city calls you back for a day, the trip works in reverse too: here is how to spend a day in Rome from the Tuscia.

Where to stay

For families, there are two independent apartments in the villa, with kitchen and shared garden; for couples, the Lovers' Cottage, all to yourselves. Either way: a pool, real silence, and the whole of the Tuscia within easy reach. To check dates, get in touch: we'll help you build the right itinerary for the days you have.