Every design for Viterbo

Ever walked through one of the ancient gates of Viterbo and felt the centuries close in around you? The medieval walls, built in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, still ring most of the old town, and inside them the San Pellegrino quarter looks much as it must have done in the Middle Ages.

The city sits on a broad gentle slope at the northern foot of the volcanic Monti Cimini, with the land falling away westwards towards the Maremma plain. That volcanic ground gives Viterbo its hot springs: the Bulicame and the wider thermal area draw visitors from all over central Italy. For a time the popes made Viterbo their favourite residence, and the Palazzo dei Papi is where several of them were elected. Today the town is also a university city, home to the University of Tuscia and an Academy of Fine Arts, and its trades of pottery and peperino stone are part of the everyday scene.

If you grew up here, the map takes you back to the papal loggia, the quiet lanes of San Pellegrino and the steam rising from the springs outside town.