Viterbo, the largest city in northern Lazio, is simply a must. Take a break from the city of Rome and soak yourself in a revitalising thermal bath in the middle of nowhere. Explore some of the world’s most significant ancient history. Travel through time to a medieval world – all without the crowds!  

Viterbo is an ancient city and comune in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo.

HIGLIGHTS

The historic center of the city is surrounded by medieval walls, still intact, built during the 11th and 12th centuries. Entrance to the walled center of the city is through ancient gates.

Apart from agriculture, the main resources of Viterbo’s area are pottery, marble, and wood. The town is home to the Italian gold reserves, an important Academy of Fine Arts, the University of Tuscia, and the Italian Army’s Aviation Command headquarters and training centre. It is located in a wide thermal area, attracting many tourists from the whole of central Italy.

The city is known for its well-preserved medieval monuments. Head straight to the Piazza di San Lorenzo, where you’ll find two of Viterbo’s major attractions. The 12th-century, Romanesque Duomo di Viterbo (or Cattedrale di San Lorenzo) is the first. This impressive church stands on the site of an Etruscan temple of Hercules.

Viterbo’s Thermal Springs

Viterbo is also a popular spa town! Around the Arcione River to the west, you’ll find several private and wild thermal springs. When it comes to medicinal mud and relaxing hot mineral baths, the Etruscans and Romans sure knew what they were doing! Especially in this area. For a more ooh-la-la experience, visit the Terme dei Papi. It’s only ten minutes away from the city, and features a few Roman ruins near the parking lot.

Places of interest

Viterbo’s historic center is one of the best preserved medieval towns of central Italy. Many of the older buildings (particularly churches) are built on top of ancient ruins, recognizable by their large stones, 50 centimeters to a side. Viterbo is unique in Italy for its concentration of ‘profferli’, external staircases that were a frequent feature of medieval houses. The San Pellegrino quarter has an abundance of them, reflecting an architectural style that is unique to the town and the nearby region.

• Palazzo dei Papi or Papal Palace: A main attraction of Viterbo, the palace hosted the papacy for about two decades in the 13th century, and served as a country residence or refuge in time of trouble in Rome. The columns of the palace are spolia from a Roman temple.
• Cathedral of S. Lorenzo: The Cathedral was originally erected as episcopal see of the exempt bishopric of Viterbo in Romanesque style by Lombard architects at the site of an ancient Roman temple of Hercules. It was rebuilt from the sixteenth century on, and heavily damaged in 1944 by Allied bombs. The Gothic belfry was built in the first half of the 14th century, and shows influence of Sienese architects. The church houses the sarcophagus of Pope John XXI and a picture Christ Blessing (1472) by Gerolamo da Cremona.
• Palazzo Comunale (town hal; begun 1460), Palazzo del Podestà (magistrate’s residence; 1264) and Palazzo della Prefettura (police HQ; rebuilt 1771): three civic buildings around the central square, Piazza del Plebiscito. The Palazzo Comunale houses a series of 17th century and Baroque frescoes by Tarquinio Ligustri, Bartolomeo Cavarozzi and Ludovico Nucci.
• Santa Maria della Salute: a small Gothic church with a highly decorated portal.
• Chiesa del Gesù: Romanesque-style 11th-century church. The sons of Simon de Montfort, Guy and Simon the Younger stabbed Henry of Almain, son of Richard, Earl of Cornwall to death as a revenge for the execution of their father.
• Palazzo Farnese: This 14th–15th-century palace was the childhood home of Alessandro Farnese, the future Pope Paul III, and his beautiful^{[citation needed]} sister, Giulia Farnese.
• Rocca (castle).
• Santa Maria Nuova (11th-century), San Sisto (second half of 9th-century), and San Giovanni in Zoccoli (11th-century): three Romanesque churches.
• Palazzo degli Alessandri: a typical medieval patrician house in central Viterbo.
• Fontana di Piazza della Rocca: public fountain in the center of the Old Town, construction 12th–16th century.
• Fontana Grande: public fountain, construction began in 1206.
• San Francesco: gothic church built over a pre-existing Lombard fortress. It has a single nave with a Latin cross plan. It houses the sepulchre of Pope Adrian V, who died in Viterbo in 1276, considered the first monument by Arnolfo di Cambio.
• Sanctuary of Santa Rosa: church is a sober 19th-century reconstruction, where every year a new Macchina di Santa Rosa, or dedicatory tower is displayed.

• Museo Civico: the (City Museum) houses many archeologic items from the pre-historic to Ancient Roman times, plus a Pinacoteca (picture gallery) with works by Sebastiano del Piombo, Antoniazzo Romano, Salvator Rosa, Antiveduto Grammatica and others.
• Orto Botanico dell’Università della Tuscia: botanical garden operated by the university.

The largest town in northern Lazio, Viterbo is a much-overlooked gem with a charming medieval centro storico and a laid-back, provincial vibe.

Baths of Viterbo

In the valley of the Arcione River just to the west of Viterbo are a number of springs celebrated for the healing qualities of their waters, and in use since Etruscan and Roman days.

In fact, the imposing ruins of a great Roman bath are still to be seen and were drawn in plan and perspective by Renaissance artists including Giuliano da Sangallo, Michelangelo, and Vasari. 

One of the most famous were the thermal springs known as the “Bulicame”, or bubbling place, whose reputation had even reached the ears of the exiled poet Dante Aligheri. Canto 14 (lines 79–81) of Dante’s Inferno describes how:“The Awakening” by Seward Johnson in Viterbo.

In silence we had reached a place where flowed
a slender watercourse out of the wood—a stream
whose redness makes me shudder still.
As from the Bulicame pours a brook whose
waters are then shared by prostitutes, so did this
stream run down across the sand.

Not far from the Bulicame, whose waters were apparently always taken in the open, is the Terme dei Papi (Bath of the Popes).

Travelers’ descriptions, etched views, and local guidebooks chronicle the fate of the Renaissance Bagno del Papa over the years and through several rebuildings resulting in a general assumption that most of the original 15th-century structure had vanished.