Small Italian Village, Big Easter Island Head

From our balcony in Soriano nel Cimino, we discuss the nearby town of Vitorchiano, with its quirky full-size Easter Island head, a local monastery that sells the most delicious jam, and a nearby ancient Roman amphitheater with no tourist crowds. Take a walk with us through this amazing town!

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www.LittleRoadsEurope.com

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We craft small-town driving itineraries for travelers to Italy, Ireland and Scotland.

And our "alter-egos" as musicians:

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Transcript

VITORCHIANO chat

Note: This is not a complete transcript, but rather the show notes we write in advance to prepare for the episode. 

INTRO: 

Welcome to Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond

Today we’re talking about one of our neighboring towns, Vitorchiano, as well as some nearby points of interest - Among other things, we’ll discuss:

- why there's a full size Easter Island head looking over the town 

- which nuns make the best jams, and where to buy them

- and where to visit an ancient Roman theatre with practically no tourists

[ROLL MUSIC] [fade]

This is Matt Walker

…and I’m Zeneba Bowers - 

We’re recording while sitting on the terrace of our tiny home in Italy - so you’ll get a sense of the sounds of life in our little town. We want this to be more like a casual conversion with us, rather than a scripted studio session - complete with church bells, cats meowing, motor scooters and trains and the town’s daily siren, and maybe the occasional clink of our drinks. 

“ … we’ll be talking about one of the cool little towns in our region, in today’s chat - here on Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond.”

[Music up then fade out]

For those of you who don’t know us: We are professional musicians and also travel writers and consultants, living and working here in Italy for the past 6 years. 

If you want to learn more about us and our lives, you can find us on our website LittleRoadsEurope..com, on our socials, and now here on our new podcast, which we’re going to do unedited, as if you’re sitting here chatting with us - 

…and by the way, we hope you like our intro music - Matt arranged it, and we recorded it right here in our house! Since we’re musicians working here in Italy, we thought that would be a fun and sensible addition to our show.

So let’s talk about Vitorchiano, one of so many little towns in our area that we love to visit

Vitorchiano is perched on a volcanic rock bluff

This stone is called ‘peperino’

Town is locally famous for its Easter Island head - full sized carved statue

One of only 2 full-size Maoi head sculptures outside of Easter Island (the other is in a museum in London). The statues on Easter Island are made from volcanic rock very similar to peperino, and back in 1990 an Easter Islander family spent many months living here, in an artistic collaboration with Vitorchiano, to craft this sculpture. 

Legend: The statue can not be moved at any time for any reason (or so it is said), lest a curse befall the town.

Mask after lockdown, best view of town from this point

Best view of the town is from the west at this statue, across a little valley: you see a white gravel road winding up to the town, several switchbacks that look like a walkway out of a medieval movie or a fairy tale. 

Into the town itself: 

Medieval walled town, go through the old tower gate into the original medieval section, which is built on a rocky promontory - comes to a point high above the valley 

- one side is a sheer cliff; the other is nearly sheer also but with a winding gravel path that leads into the valley, where there's a sculpture garden and a network of hiking trails.

Scary balconies on both sides 

Site of movies

Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini shot films here and in this area, easy to see why: 

Myriad alleyways and Escher-like staircases. Take time to explore twisty streets, many end on sheer drops, incredible overlooks. 

Climb the tower in city hall - modern stairs, much easier :)  - art exhibits

Beautiful council hall, decorated with frescoes - including wolf w Romulus & Remus 

SPQR 

Even though in Viterbo province (same as us), Vitorchiano is famous for its historical fidelity and alliance to Rome

The Rome-Vitorchiano alliance was formed in the 1200’s when Viterbo laid siege to Vitorchiano. 

Due to this alliance Vitorchiano is technically considered a part of Rome, and is entitled to display the SPQR symbol, which you can find carved in stone on several emblems throughout the town

.

At the gate, see a statue of a boy taking a thorn out of his foot - based on ancient Greek statue, Vitorchiano adapted the legend - boy ran all the way to Rome to warn of approaching invasion. 

Presepe: several dozen throughout the town, a real point of pride in the town and lots of people come from neighboring towns to get into the holiday spirit

Baby Jesus missing from the displays until after Dec 24. Seems obvious now, but not being religious we missed it for many years. (This kind of thing happens fairly often)

Friend’s son, who was having stomach trouble at the time, and could only eat dry toast and plain noodles. Pork sausages, apple cart

Vitorchiano’s churches: One of our favorite things to do in any town is visit the churches, and Vitorcheiano has lots of them, from medieval and Renaissance eras - with artwork to match. (But lately several of them been closed due to instability with the roofs - very recent news, not sure when they’ll be repaired)

Lots of “town cats”, including that one that always runs up to us, sits on top of cars, and love pasta with pancetta

— “ADVERTISEMENT” BREAK —

That reminds me that we need to stop for a word from our sponsor - - - - 

- - - just kidding, we don’t have any sponsors - and we’re not looking for any either, we want to keep this an ad-free show.

So today’s show is brought to you by: A Good Idea. 

And today’s Good Idea is: 

- When you’re traveling, carry a little bag of cat treats with you - you’ll make lots of friends when you’re out and about - this goes for traveling in Italy, or anywhere else.

That’s it!

… So anyway, where were we?

Outside of town:

Trappist monastery, where a resident group of nuns - (Monastery = nuns or priests)

… they make 30 different types of jam (and other produce)

They use an ancient recipe that uses no pectin, and they make the jam entirely from fruit they grow in their own fields and orchards. They have a small shop on the monastery grounds where they sell their products (and others from select monasteries)

Apple AND orange jam - Nuns jam, chocolate, tinctures 

Peony festival in spring - don’t go too late in season

Ferento - ancient roman city

Horse farm still underground 

Wild mint 

More Cats!

Ancient houses are so small, even the home of the rich guy 

Acoustics reciting Latin text

Free entry, but they ask for donation - docents are local volunteers

OUTRO: 

I think that’s a good place to wrap it up here - we hope you enjoyed joining us for our little Bar Chat!

We’ll be talking about a wide variety of topics here on this podcast, from travel tips to slice-of-life stories - we’ll post a new episode every Tuesday. 

So catch us next time - we’ll see you down the Little Roads… CIAO!