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Civita di Bagnoregio
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
city · IT

Civita di Bagnoregio

Recommended stay: 1 day
Getting around: There's no vehicle access to the village itself — it's reached only by a long pedestrian footbridge from the neighboring town of Bagnoregio, where cars park in a paid lot. There's no train station; the practical approach is by car to Bagnoregio (about 1.5 hours from Rome) or a combination of train to Orvieto and a local bus.
Hours: An entry fee and small gate control access to the footbridge and village, generally open daily but with reduced or altered hours off-season; the walk across the bridge itself is exposed with no shade, so midsummer midday crossings are uncomfortably hot.

Civita di Bagnoregio is known as "the dying town" (la città che muore) because the soft volcanic tufa hill it sits on has been eroding for centuries, gradually isolating it into what is now effectively an islet connected to the rest of Bagnoregio only by a single footbridge, with the surrounding countryside collapsing into ravines around it. A handful of permanent residents (often cited as roughly a dozen) still live in the village, which retains a genuinely medieval, half-abandoned atmosphere despite the crowds of day visitors crossing the bridge.

It's small enough to see thoroughly in a couple of hours — one main street, a small church, a few restaurants and craft shops — and the walk across the long footbridge, with the eroded canyon dropping away on either side, is as much the point as the village itself. It has become heavily photographed and is now genuinely busy with day-trippers, especially from Rome and Orvieto, so early morning or late afternoon light and lower crowds are worth timing for.

Civita di Bagnoregio FAQs

Why is Civita di Bagnoregio called 'the dying town'?

The soft volcanic tufa hill it sits on has been eroding for centuries, gradually collapsing the surrounding land and leaving the village isolated on an ever-shrinking islet reachable only by a footbridge.

How do people actually get into the village?

By walking across a long pedestrian-only footbridge from the neighboring town of Bagnoregio, where visitors park; there is no vehicle access to Civita itself.

How many people still live there?

Only a small number of year-round residents, often cited as around a dozen, though the population swells with day-trippers and second-home use in summer.

Is it worth the trip from Rome?

Yes, if paired with Orvieto or another stop in the area — Civita alone is small (a couple of hours suffices), so most visitors combine it with the wider Orvieto/Lazio-Umbria border region.

Is there an entry fee?

Yes, a modest fee is charged to cross the footbridge into the village, which goes toward maintaining the crumbling site and managing visitor numbers.

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