Three Days in Tuscia: an Itinerary of Hill Towns, Lakes and Hot Springs

Three days is the right measure for Tuscia: enough to see the best of it without rushing, short enough to fit a long weekend. If you are wondering what to see in Tuscia in 3 days, this is the itinerary we suggest to our guests — hill towns, lakes and hot springs, arranged into real days with real driving times. One idea holds it together: a single base in the countryside and, each morning, a different direction.

How this itinerary works

Tuscia has no capital city to explore on foot: it is a constellation of villages, lakes and gardens scattered within a 40-minute radius. The classic mistake is changing beds every night; the smart move is the opposite — sleep in the same place and travel out like spokes of a wheel, returning each evening to the silence of the countryside. The three days below all start from Bassano in Teverina, where we live, and can be swapped freely, with just two things to plan around: Villa Lante closes on Mondays, and the pool at the Terme dei Papi closes on Tuesdays.

Day 1 — Viterbo, Villa Lante and the hot springs

Start with the provincial capital, half an hour from the villa. The morning belongs to the San Pellegrino district, the best-preserved medieval quarter in Europe — stone staircases on the façades, arches vaulting over the alleys — and to the Palace of the Popes, where the longest conclave in history was held: 1,006 days. The details are in our Viterbo guide. After lunch, five kilometres take you to Bagnaia: Villa Lante, the most elegant Italian-style garden in Tuscia, with its carved water chain and sixteenth-century fountains. The finale is a soak: the Terme dei Papi, a monumental two-thousand-square-metre pool fed by a spring that rises at 58 °C — and if it is Saturday, the night bath under the stars until 1 am.

Day 2 — Civita di Bagnoregio and Lake Bolsena

The day of wonders, and it pays to leave early. The scenic Teverina road takes you in 40–45 minutes to Civita di Bagnoregio, with one stop worth the detour: the ghost village of Celleno. Civita can only be entered on foot, over a 260-metre bridge suspended above the badlands: before ten the village is almost yours, and the light is at its best — tickets and parking are in our Civita guide. Lake Bolsena is twenty minutes away: the afternoon is for swimming — the black volcanic-sand beaches of Marta and Capodimonte, waters rated excellent — or for Isola Bisentina, the Farnese family's secret garden, to be booked online. Stay for sunset: from Bolsena's lakefront or from the Rocca of Montefiascone the sun drops straight into the water — the very view in the photo above. For dinner, oven-baked coregone and a glass of Montefiascone's Est! Est!! Est!!!.

Day 3 — the monsters of Bomarzo and the stone villages

The last day is played at home, within a quarter of an hour. The morning belongs to the Sacro Bosco of Bomarzo, the «Monster Park»: stone ogres as tall as houses, the leaning house, a wood that has looked like nothing else since the sixteenth century — open every day, and a delight with children. Then Vitorchiano, the village suspended on its peperino cliff, home to the only authentic Moai outside Easter Island. The afternoon slows down, the way a holiday should end: the alleys of Bassano in Teverina, the villa's own village, and the last hours by the pool.

If you have half a day more

There are two natural extensions. Orvieto, 50 minutes away, with the Duomo façade and St Patrick's Well; or, in summer, the cool places — the UNESCO beech forest of Monte Cimino, the waterfalls in the Chia gorge — told in our guide to staying cool near Rome.

Where to stay: one base, at the centre of it all

This itinerary works because the base never changes. Villa Vacanze Valentina sits in Bassano in Teverina, at the exact centre of the loop: Bomarzo 10 minutes away, Viterbo 30, Civita and the lake 40–45 — and Rome an hour away, with the A1 motorway exit at Orte just a quarter of an hour from the villa, should you wish to add a day in the capital. Families have the two apartments in the villa, independent and with kitchens; couples have the Casetta degli Innamorati, the starting point of a romantic getaway in Tuscia. For dates, or advice on the order of the days, write to us: we have been doing this loop all our lives.

If your itinerary revolves around the Park of the Monsters, you may also find our guide on where to stay near Bomarzo useful.