Fosso Castello waterfalls

Location Bomarzo (VT)

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A piece of the history of Tuscia could be told through the historical and natural beauties of the valley in an area once inhabited by the Etruscans and rediscovered only in the Middle Ages. Today, it is an authentic open-air museum dedicated to botany and archaeology.

Not far from the historic center of Bomarzo, one can walk through a forest that holds precious treasures: the necropolis of Santa Cecilia, which preserves some remains of sarcophagi, and the mysterious “Etruscan pyramid”, a large marble block referred to by locals as the “preacher's stone”.

Among oaks and turkey oaks runs the Castello stream, which gives rise to the distinctive Fosso Castello waterfalls: three cascades that flow over ancient stone. Some scenes from Mario Monicelli's “Spartacus” were filmed here. However, the site is best known as the set for the baptism scene in “The Gospel According to St. Matthew” by Pier Paolo Pasolini. The director was so enchanted by the location that he built a small stone and glass house near the waterfalls, close to the Tower of Chia, a charming 13th-century fortress that, over the centuries, belonged to the Orsini, Lante della Rovere, and Borghese families.

“I would like to be a composer, living with instruments inside the tower of Viterbo that I cannot manage to buy, in the most beautiful landscape in the world, where Ariosto would have gone mad with joy at seeing himself recreated with such innocence of oaks, hills, waters, and ravines...”

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Along the stream, one encounters the ruins of medieval mills with their ancient millstones, which were in operation until the post-war period. These are just a few of the beauties that can be admired during a wonderful trek through the Tuscia region of Viterbo.