Eyes wide open – overlooking Pomona land

Image climbing a medieval tower. Step after step you can see through the small windows the panorama changing slowly; at the end of the stairs you are on top of it and your sight opens wide, dominating all the surrounding areas. There are no big cities and all you can see are small villages, smooth hills covered by Mediterranean woods and made of tufa, the vulcanic stone all this area is made of, on their steeper slopes you can see big holes, entrances of ancient tombs, few remains of some of the most ancient inhabitants of this area, the Etruscans, and, moving slowly like a giant snake, the green line of the Tiber river. Every small village you see has a tower and a castle, properties of the richest and most powerful families, surrounded by small houses, where poor people lived and work for centuries, looking for protection from barbarians and the continuous fights between feudal lords, powerful cities like Orvieto and Viterbo, kings and Popes.

Every stone says a story – the rocky tale to climb

Civitella d’Agliano has probably the tallest tower in the area, built during the middle age by the Monaldeschi, a noble family owner of several castles, looking down the tower, close to it, you would see the greyish roofs of the old town, the ancient stone houses make you feel like you are no longer in our times, but a magic portal opened to take you into another time and world. The village has been founded around the year 1000, on top of a hill, just like all the others around, but centuries before this place was inhabited by the Etruscans first and Romans later: in the countryside all around Civitella several tombs have been found, marble pieces coming from rich roman villas. The beauty of the place and the richness of the vulcanic soil have always been attractive.

The neverending bond with the past and the mill of trade

Only a few people live today in the old city. People who don’t want to leave this magic place, where every single brick seems to have a story to tell and tenaciously want to keep this old place alive. Like Daniele and Alessia, who can show you their incredible collection of old working bicycles hosted in an old olives mill. Their small collection gives you immediately the idea of what was like living just a few decades ago: the barber bike has everything the “Barbiere” needed, a wooden box with scissors, brushes, razors, towels, mirrors, and small glass bottles that looks like magician potions. The butter maker-bike, used by a man who moved around the villages and countryside to make butter with the milk of the peasants into a mold with his symbol, an early type of marketing. These bikes give you immediately the idea of workers moving all around to find their clients even in the farthest corner of the countryside, to find people who rarely left their houses and fields, maybe just for the annual “Fiera”, the big market, and the religious events.

Slower the rhythm: enjoy Pomona lands!

The smell of the olio nuovo, the just pressed oil, the paths through the woods, the silence all around, the ancient buildings: big cities with their haste are far away from here…