Civita di Bagnoregio

I took a bus from Orvieto, which I believe is a little over an hour from Rome by train. Orvieto is very nice and is worth a day's visit (or longer) itself.

Rome2Rio routes you through Orvieto when you're traveling from Florence as well as from Rome. There is also bus service from to Viterbo.

Note that the bus goes to Bagnoregio, from which you can take a little shuttle bus to a spot near the causeway to Civita, or you can walk (it's quite a distance). I imagine there are taxis around, too, but I don't remember whether I saw any. I assume details are covered in Rick's Italy book, but I no longer have my copy.

Thank you!

Angelina,

I'm assuming you meant TO Orvieto from either Florence or Rome?

Visiting Civita will be easier from Rome. You'll first need to take the train to Orvieto (~1.5 hours), and then transfer to the Bus (Cotral, as I recall) for the trip to Bagnoregio (about 1 hour). When you arrive there, you'll transfer to the small Shuttle for the short trip to the base of the bridge at Civita. You will then walk up to the town, which will probably take ~10-15 minutes.

Be sure to check the departure times for the Shuttle in the return direction, and also the Bus back to Orvieto.

In researching for our visit to Civita I learned the buses don't run on Sun which is the day we wanted to visit. Enjoy! Maybe we see you there!

I am sorry but I am going to be Debbie Downer here. I was so looking forward to visiting Civita di Bagnoregio on my Rick Steves Village Italy tour. I loved the picture on the front of the book of tours! I know many like it but it turned out to be a huge disappointment to me. It is not a city that is still lived in except for seemingly dozens of feral cats. People come over to man the shops during the day and there are a few bed and breakfasts where people do stay overnight. There is really not much to do there...as a group we went and had bruschetta which was fine, then walked around the area for maybe 30 minutes, went in to the church and then left.

If ~anyone~ has an issue with heights, be advised that the causeway to walk out to Civita is higher than it looks in pictures! Yikes.

If you are staying in Orvieto then doing it as a day trip is fine but I would not travel for several hours to see it. There are many other hill towns that are more vibrant and interesting in my opinion.

In the end, it is your vacation and your interests may certainly be different from mine, but just wanted to throw this opinion out there.

I agree with Pam. Interesting-enough place, but awkward to get to if you aren't already visiting Orvieto or Viterbo.

the best thing about CdiB is the view from a distance. We had a car and I am glad we did it but I would not want to spend hours getting there either. There is no there, there. https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/civita-de-bagnoreggio-adrift-in-the-clouds/
It is a stunning sight though and Orvieto is quite something; we combined a visit to Orvieto with the side trip.

Count me in the same camp as Janet, avraven, and Pam. We visited C da B when were in the area,
and all I could think was that Rick had lost his mind when he said it was his favorite hill town. From either of your two cities, Florence in particular, there are so many lovely, INTERESTING towns, I advise that you not waste a day.

If you arrive by bus, make sure look at the bus schedule from Civita to wherever you want to go. When you arrive at CdB, buy a return ticket from the local tobac shop. We did the bus thing many years ago. Back then the bus dropped you off at the edge of town and keep going. We were smart enough to check the return bus schedule but somehow we forgot that we would need another return ticket to board. It dawned on us about 5 minutes before it was scheduled to arrive! I ran as fast as I could back to town, bought the tickets for all four of us and ran back. It all worked out but if could have been bad if the ONLY store in town that sells the bus tickets was closed for the afternoon.

Terry, it's always best to snag that return ticket when you can, but a couple of times (including once in Bolsena, Italy) when the local purveyor of bus tickets was closed, I was able to pay the bus driver, and it seemed as if there was no extra charge. I assume the driver knows when the local tabak kiosk is closed, so I'm not suggesting that this would work at other times.

Thank you all for your suggestions, they are much appreciated. I may not go to Civita afterall.