Trying to locate a city between Florence and Rome

Oh boy, a puzzle! We like puzzles here--but please give us more to go on than this. Do you remember anything else?such as the road you were on?or at least the type of road--was it the Autostrada A1 (the freeway) or a back road?did you see the town early or late in your drive, or mid-way?do you have a photo of it that's posted somewhere on the internet (for example, one of the internet galleries) that you could link us to?

It was the Autostrada A-1 road and we saw it during the day - no obstruction in viewing it. Its appearance was actually shocking to us. It was not just another city on a hill. I wish I could remember more than it was a quick pass on the road and now we so regret not stopping.

The buildings were bunched very tightly together.

Thanks for any insight you may have.

We were driving to Rome and the city was on the right-hand side.

It sounds somewhat like Civita di Bagnoregio, however that's not a "decent sized town" - it's quite small. However it is between Florence and Rome, and would be on the right hand side if heading south on the A1 (although it's not exactly close to the A1, but may be visible?).

If I had to guess, it was not too far away. I would say fairly close.

Did it look like this (Orvieto)? 1st pic: you would have seen it from farther away? http://www.panoramio.com/photo/5251764Same town, Orvieto, at night, taken from near the autostrada http://www.panoramio.com/photo/7896108http://www.panoramio.com/photo/5251734

It may have been Orvieto.

http://www.marybeale.com/journal/archives/orvieto.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1069/731160669_a737379889.jpg?v=0

I don't think that is it. It had many defined buildings together and less of a presence of a support wall.

Unless the view is dramatically different from the other side, this is not it. Imagine looking at a hill where buildings are piled on top of each other and look like they will fall off at any moment. These buildings look fairly stable and aren't at risk of falling off. Thanks though for the suggestion as I have never stopped here and it looks appealing!

More like this? http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2529436 you would have seen it from a different side and not from this high up, this is from an airplaneOr like this? http://www.panoramio.com/photo/85898Or this one? http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1625565

The last one is closer, but I am still not convinced. Thanks for all of your help. I will see if my husband has any more helpful comments and if I locate it, I will let you know.

You can go to Google, do the free download of Google Earth, takes a couple of minutes, then you can replicate and fly over the A-1, looking off the right at realistic terrain features, and probably locate what you saw.

Nicolle,

Does these views look familiar?

www.romeartlover.it/Bagnoregio.html

www.pbase.com/andrys/bagnoregio

Civita is close to Orvieto, so may have been visible as you drove through Umbria.

This isn't it either. The one I remember was not so sparse and it appeared much larger. I have taken too much of your time. I will try searching the A1 and looking at all of the towns.

Thanks again!

Nicolle,

Let us know when you find it. I'm sure the group here will be waiting for the answer to "the puzzle".

Cheers!

Actually Nicolle-we made the same drive and saw that town. It was impressive (but was a little bit in the distance-not right next to the freeway) Anyway, it was not Orvieta or Civita since we visited both of those. It would have been north a ways from Orvieto, since we got off the the Autostrada there. At the time, we wondered if it was Montepulciana, but were never sure.

Ok - the Biden comment was just dumb and had no place here. I think I found it...I believe it was the town of Orte.

Sorry for the long link, but you can view it at:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://lh6.ggpht.com/_YUsmdEnoHAc/RxJ911m4G1I/AAAAAAAAAB8/OVMSBoQEGPM/Italy%2B2007%2B-%2BMy%2BFavorites.jpg&imgrefurl=http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/_R4NSWh3llsm4JLHxzC6yA&usg=__BUaDRoKrcVRArDeF57a0ZYBGC6k=&h=1202&w=1600&sz=16&hl=en&start=6&um=1&tbnid=NncaXMYWq69AgM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dorte,%2Bitaly%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

I've driven the A1 between Rome and Florence several times and have been racking my head over what town you might have seen. I initially thought it had to be Orvieto. I had forgotten about Orte. Never stopped there, but now I remember seeing it from the A1. Let me know how you liked it, we may have to stop there on our next trip to Italy!

Wow= that is nice Nicolle. That is different from the one we saw (Orte is south of Orvieto) Glad you figured it out.