Vitorchiano

Ever since 1267, when its people pledged themselves to Rome, this village has supplied the ceremonial guard of the Capitol, the Fedeli di Vitorchiano, who still sound their clarine trumpets at Roman ceremonies. The old centre stands on a shelf of peperino stone split into huge blocks, dropping sheer to two ravines below the Monti Cimini, and quarrying that stone long shaped local life.

Highlights

• A moai carved in 1990 by Easter Islanders from a 30-tonne block of peperino
• The Fedeli guard, in costumes traditionally credited to Michelangelo
• Porta Romana and the walls around the old village
• The 13th-century Romanesque church of Santa Maria Assunta in Cielo
• Streets where scenes of Monicelli's L'armata Brancaleone were filmed

Text adapted from Wikipedia (Vitorchiano (IT), Vitorchiano (EN)), Wikivoyage (Vitorchiano). Available under CC BY-SA 4.0.