Casperia (RI)

Casperia is at Via Rivellini, in the municipality of the same name in the province of Rieti, postal code 02041, on the western slope of the Sabine Mountains at about 400 meters above sea level. The historic center is closed to traffic: cars stay outside the walls, in the parking lots along the ring road and below the gates, and the visit starts on foot. From Rome it's just under 70 kilometers, taking Via Salaria to Passo Corese and then continuing along State Road 313 toward Poggio Mirteto and the Tiber valley. From Rieti, which is about 30 kilometers away, you come down by the provincial road of Fonte Cerro or by the scenic Tancia provincial road, which crosses the mountain through Poggio Catino. There's no admission ticket: the village is a living town, not a fenced-off museum, and you walk freely through its lanes and stairways from dawn to night. The parish church of San Giovanni Battista, at the top, opens according to service times. For guided visits to the buildings and the historic archive it's best to contact the Comune in advance, at Piazza del Municipio 13, or consult the tourist portal visitcasperia.it. The best time to come is late spring or early autumn, when the light cuts sharp across the views of Monte Soratte and the climb isn't tiring.

To place Casperia in a wider itinerary of the Rieti Sabina, this guide links to the pages of the neighboring villages and the abbeys of the valley, starting with the Abbey of Farfa, the great monastic hinge of the area.

What Casperia really is and why it's worth the climb

Casperia is a village of just over 1,200 inhabitants that occupies the top of an elongated hill between the left bank of the Tiber and the first foothills of the Sabine Mountains. The town grows in rings: the stone houses line up along streets in concentric circles that tighten as they climb, until they close at the top in the square of San Giovanni Battista, at just under 400 meters above sea level. It's the layout the inhabitants have always described, with a homely image, as shaped like an onion bulb: the segments of the streets wrap around the high core and protect it. The result is a steep maze of lanes, arches, walkways and stairways where not even a scooter can pass, and where the sound that accompanies your walk is that of your own steps on the paving.

The village is part of the Borghi più belli d'Italia circuit and has earned the Touring Club Italiano's Orange Flag, the mark that rewards small inland towns for the quality of their welcome and their care of the environment. It's not a token recognition: Casperia is one of the very few historic centers in Europe that have remained by nature completely inaccessible to cars, not because of a limited traffic zone imposed on paper, but because the streets were born narrow and sloping and could never accommodate a vehicle. Anyone arriving here finds a town that is visited at the pace of walking, and that is exactly why it's worth the trip from the capital.

Where Casperia is and what the territory is like

The municipality is not just the built-up core on top of the hill. The territory descends toward the Tiber and climbs toward the peaks of the Sabine Mountains, and includes some of the highest summits of the range: Monte Macchia Gelata reaches 1,258 meters, Monte Alto 1,215. At altitude, at 1,054 meters, Fonte Cognolo gushes, considered the most important perennial spring of the entire Sabine massif. There are three hamlets, all full of history: Santa Maria in Legarano, Paranzano and San Vito. In the surrounding countryside the olive groves stretch as far as the eye can see and produce the protected-designation-of-origin extra virgin oil of the Sabina, one of the oldest olive-growing areas in Italy. The farmland, the monumental trees recorded on the territory and the mountain springs make Casperia a convenient base also for those who are looking for slow walking more than just the historic center.

The history of Casperia, from Aspra Sabina to the new name of 1947

The town you walk through today was born in the 10th century with the name of Aspra, or Aspra Sabina, and lived under that name for almost a thousand years, until 1947. The ancient name was read in two ways: from the ruggedness of the place, a steep hill defended by nature that the medieval charters call mons qui nominatur Aspra, or from the name of a local family, the Asproni. Casperia, the current name, comes much later and arises from a learned conviction cultivated since the Renaissance: that the ancient Sabine city remembered by Virgil in the seventh book of the Aeneid stood right here. To the learned allusion was added a practical and prosaic reason, to avoid the continual postal confusion with the other Aspra, the Sicilian one, and with nearby Ascrea, also in the province of Rieti. In 1947 the change became official.

The legendary origins and the myth of the Caspian Sea

Tradition links the name Casperia to the Caspian Sea and to the mythical origin of the Sabines. The story goes that Sabus, the eponymous forefather of the Sabine people, having left Persia and arrived in Greece, was forced by the rigidity of the laws of Lycurgus to leave Sparta and move westward, first to Sicily and then to this part of Italy. It's a legendary genealogy, like many that antiquity and humanism fabricated to ennoble places, and it should be taken for what it is: a founding myth, not a documented fact. The value of these stories is not in their historical accuracy but in the way they shaped the identity of the town, to the point of making it change its name in the 20th century.

Casperia in the Latin sources and the verse of Virgil

The ancient name appears in leading authors. Virgil, in the catalog of the Italic peoples in the seventh book of the Aeneid, cites it among the Sabine cities that send troops to help King Turnus against Aeneas, in the verse that names Casperia, Foruli and the river Himella together. Silius Italicus, the geographer Vibius Sequester and the grammarian Maurus Servius Honoratus, the late antique commentator on Virgil, also mention it. That the medieval village on the hill really coincides with the Casperia of the poets remains, however, a matter of hypothesis: the origins of the ancient city are uncertain. Scholars look instead toward the locality of Paranzano, where the ruins of some Roman rustic villas remain and where speleo-archaeological surveys have identified a Sabine aqueduct datable between the 5th and 4th centuries BC. One of the villas is said to have belonged to Pallas, the powerful freedman of Antonia, mother of the emperor Claudius. A second Roman settlement was at Legarano, where another hydraulic tunnel of the archaic period has come to light. These are solid elements for the Roman presence in the valley, not yet enough to establish with certainty where ancient Casperia stood.

The free commune and the golden centuries of Aspra

The documented history is far more concrete than the myth. Aspra constituted itself as a free commune in 1189 and between the 13th and 14th centuries became one of the most powerful communities of the Sabina. The dates mark out a story of autonomy continually negotiated with the greater powers. In 1209 Pope Innocent III exempted the town from certain burdens, and in 1254 Innocent IV granted privileges to the new inhabitants in order to repopulate it. In 1282 the second circuit of walls was built, the one that still defends the high core. In 1285 the community divided the lands of the territory among the families and gave itself its first municipal statute. In 1303 Aspra bought the castle of Caprignano, in 1307 it swore loyalty to an agreement with Narni, in 1347 it offered itself to Cola di Rienzo, the Roman tribune who in those years dreamed of refounding the republic, and in 1365 it allied with the condottiere Hanneken von Baumgarten against its rival Magliano Sabina.

From the Statute of 1397 to the Savelli and the Apostolic Chamber

In 1397 the Statutum Terrae Asprae was promulgated, the body of laws that governed the life of the commune. It is in these rules that the most eloquent provision on the town's relationship with its walls appears: anyone who opened a breach in the circuit risked the death penalty. The defenses were not an ornament, they were survival. In 1401 Aspra entered among the fiefs of the Savelli family, and in 1461 Duke Federico da Montefeltro besieged it without managing to take it, further proof of the solidity of those walls. In 1592 Pope Clement VIII confiscated Aspra from Troilo Savelli and the town passed under the direct rule of the Apostolic Chamber. From then on the story becomes the quieter one of a center of the Papal States. It's worth recalling a recent and surprising administrative episode: until 1923 the commune belonged to the province of Perugia, in Umbria. That year it passed to Rome, and in 1927, with the creation of the province of Rieti, it was definitively annexed to it.

Visiting Casperia, gate by gate and church by church

The right way to get to know Casperia is to enter through a gate and let yourself climb. The historic center is a masterpiece of 13th-century military and civil architecture, and every element has a precise function in the defensive logic of the village: towers, walkways, ravelins, arrow slits, casemates, forced routes that made the attacker expose himself. Here are the points nobody should skip, taken one by one.

The walls of 1282 and the gates of Casperia

The circuit that protects the high core dates to 1282 and is considered by scholars a true masterpiece of 13th-century defensive art. You reach it on foot through two main gates. Porta Romana opens to the west, toward the road that descends in the direction of Rome and the Tiber. Porta Santa Maria, to the east, is also called Porta Reatina because it faces Rieti. Above the arch you can see the clock that once marked the canonical hour, the one set by the religious services. Of the oldest ring, the one from the 11th century, the Arco di Mezzo remains, also called Arco Vecchio, along the present-day Via Garibaldi. Passing through it means walking under the trace of the first Aspra, the one born even before the great 13th-century walls. This is where it's best to begin the route among the lanes.

The Church of San Giovanni Battista and the Romanesque tower

At the top of the hill, in the square that bears its name, stands the parish church of San Giovanni Battista, the religious and visual focal point of the village. The building was restored in 1515 and reworked in Baroque forms in 1791. Its oldest and most precious element is the Romanesque bell tower of the 13th century, which preserves 14th-century frescoes: one of the few medieval testimonies left intact in the fabric of the church. Inside is kept a painting of the Baptism of Christ signed by Giacomo Santoro and dated 1524, together with a 17th-century organ. A monumental nativity scene is also set up in the square, a heartfelt event in the Christmas period. Anyone who climbs all the way up here finds, besides the church, the highest point of the town and the most open view over the surrounding valleys.

The Church of the Santissima Annunziata

A little below the summit you come to the Church of the Santissima Annunziata, a 17th-century building that bears the date 1609 on the portal and was finished in 1661. The facade is Baroque, sober as befits a provincial center of the Papal States, but the interior holds a work of quality: on the high altar is a canvas of the Annunciation attributed to Giovanni Battista Salvi, the painter from the Marche known as Sassoferrato, one of the most delicate names of 17th-century devotion. The columns of the building are in red Cottanello marble, the Sabine stone quarried not far away, the same found in many Roman churches. It's an occasion to understand how far the Sabina was inside the artistic circuit of the capital, and not at its margins.

Palazzo Forani, 50 rooms inside a tower

The town's noble palace was built at the end of the 16th century by the Bruschi family, who incorporated into the new building a pre-existing medieval tower. It has over 50 rooms and a private chapel: a size that gives the measure of the weight of certain families in the papal Sabina. It hosted Cardinal Corsini in 1781 and in the Napoleonic era was refitted in Empire style. In 1929 it passed to the Forani family, from which it takes its present name, and was then renovated in the 1960s and again in 2003. Since then part of the palace has functioned as a historic residence for hospitality and is part of the Rete delle Dimore Storiche del Lazio. The portal is guarded by two stone bears, a heraldic animal that refers to the name and the coat of arms of the Orsini.

The churches of the hamlets and the surroundings of Casperia

Anyone with time should leave the walled core and look for the churches of the territory, which tell a parallel and equally ancient story. At Legarano, three kilometers to the north, the church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is built over a Roman rustic villa, was parochial until 1409 and preserves frescoes by the brothers Lorenzo and Bartolomeo Torresani from 1561 and a polychrome wooden statue by Carlo l'Aquilano dated 1489. At Paranzano the Madonna della Neve, of medieval origin, was rebuilt in 1580 and restored in 1652, with 16th-century frescoes dedicated to Saint Anthony Abbot. On the hill of Montefiolo, the convent founded by the Capuchins in 1558, today the seat of the Benedictine oblates of Priscilla, holds the church of the Santissimo Salvatore, documented already in 1343, with an altarpiece by Girolamo Batacchioli from 1619. The convent hosted Saint Felix of Cantalice. These are destinations for a second day, convenient if you combine Casperia with other villages of the Sabina such as Roccantica, Toffia or Castelnuovo di Farfa.

The historic archive of Casperia, a treasure of parchments

A less known but enormously valuable heritage is the municipal historic archive, considered one of the most important in Lazio. It preserves documents covering a span of over a thousand years, from 950 to 1975. Among the main collections are 319 parchments from between 1099 and 1729, a notarial collection running from 1351 to 1860 and the municipal and jurisdictional papers of the old free commune. In 1990 the historian Alfredo Pellegrini published a fundamental part of it, the volume devoted to the papers of Casperia, formerly Aspra, from 1099 to 1349. For a community of just over a thousand inhabitants it's an archive of extraordinary size, and it explains why the history of the town is known with a precision that many much larger centers do not have. Consultation is by request and must be arranged with the Comune.

A curiosity about Casperia (RI)

The curiosity that almost no visitor knows concerns the name change of 1947. Casperia has not always been called that: for almost a thousand years it was Aspra, or Aspra Sabina. The new name does not come from a popular tradition but from a learned choice, the conviction, cultivated by the humanists since the Renaissance, that the Casperia cited by Virgil in the seventh book of the Aeneid stood on this very hill. To this literary suggestion was added a thoroughly earthly problem: letters and parcels regularly ended up in the Sicilian Aspra, in the province of Palermo, and were mixed up with nearby Ascrea in the Rieti area. Changing the name solved a scholarly point of pride and a postal nuisance at once. The town that today presents itself as one of the oldest villages of the Sabina thus bears a name that is less than 80 years old, while its walls are more than 700. It's the most fascinating contradiction of this place, and worth keeping in mind as you read the name on the signs at the entrance: behind that word there is an ancient myth and a 20th-century administrative decision.

Something nobody tells you about Casperia (RI)

What the quick guides don't say is how radical the absence of cars in Casperia is, and why it's not a rule but a natural condition. Many villages advertise a limited traffic zone, imposed recently for reasons of decorum. Here it's different: the streets of the historic center have never been able to accommodate a vehicle, because they were born narrow, steep and often stepped, to defend the high core from anyone climbing up. The result is that Casperia ranks among the very few historic centers in Europe whose built-up area is by nature completely inaccessible to cars. This has a practical consequence worth knowing before you leave: everything you bring in, from groceries to suitcases, you carry by hand, up the stairways. Anyone staying overnight in the village must count on a climb with luggage. But it's also the reason the town sounds different from any other: there's no continuous background of engines, and the only thing you hear while walking is your footstep on the paving, a few voices from windows in bloom and, at the top, the bells of San Giovanni Battista.

The advice I give you for visiting Casperia (RI)

The advice is simple and goes against instinct: don't head straight for the square at the top. The temptation, once you're under the walls, is to take the most direct stairway and reach San Giovanni Battista right away for the view. Do it later. Instead enter by Porta Romana and let yourself climb following the concentric circuits, without choosing the shortest street: that's how you understand the onion-bulb layout, one ring after another, with views opening by surprise between one arch and the next onto Monte Soratte and the Tiber valley. You'll reach the square anyway, but with your head full of what you've passed through. On the practical side: bring shoes with a good sole, because the paving is uneven and slippery going down. Come in late spring or early autumn, when the light is sharp and the climb isn't tiring. And allow for a stop at the table, because the Sabina is a land of protected-designation extra virgin oil and handmade pasta dishes. If you can, stay until sunset: when the visitors' cars leave the village goes back to its inhabitants, and that's the hour when Casperia is at its best.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely cited

It's known that Casperia is walled, but few dwell on how much the walls really counted in the life of the town. The Statute of 1397, the Statutum Terrae Asprae, prescribed the death penalty for anyone who opened a breach in the circuit. It was not a theoretical threat: the circuit of 1282 was the only guarantee of survival for a frontier community, exposed to the continual wars between the communes of the Sabina and to the raids of the condottieri. The solidity of those defenses has a precise historical proof. In 1461 Duke Federico da Montefeltro, one of the most skilled commanders of 15th-century Italy, laid siege to Aspra and failed to take it. A lord who held half of central Italy in check stopped in front of these walls. That's why, walking today under Porta Santa Maria or under the Arco di Mezzo, you're not just looking at a nice scenic detail: you're touching the system that allowed the village to pass intact through centuries of conflict, down to us with its concentric plan still legible.

The right photo to take in Casperia (RI)

The photograph that Casperia gives you to take home is not the close-up of a portal, but the whole profile of the village rising in rings up to the bell tower. To take it you have to leave the town. Go down the road toward Porta Romana and look for one of the bends of the ring road, or reach a raised point along the provincial road: from there the hill is seen in full, with the stone houses arranged in a spiral and the Romanesque tower of San Giovanni Battista closing the composition at the top. The best light is that of late afternoon, when the low sun from the west carves out the relief of the houses and detaches the town from the backdrop of the Sabine Mountains. If you're lucky enough to have a clear day, the cone of Monte Soratte cuts sharply across the horizon, the isolated mountain that Horace sang as white with snow: putting it in the frame, behind the village, holds together in a single shot the landscape of the Sabina and its literary memory. Inside the walls, on the other hand, the photo to look for is vertical: one of the narrow stairways that climb between the houses, with flowering windows at the sides and an arch framing the light at the end.

Some important events that happened here in history

The history of Casperia is made of precise episodes, not generic centuries of splendor. In 1189 Aspra constituted itself as a free commune, and from that moment the community negotiated its autonomy with the popes and with the neighboring lords. In 1347 it sided with Cola di Rienzo, the tribune who in Rome attempted the restoration of the republic: a choice of side that says how much the small Sabine commune looked to the great events of the capital. In 1365 it formed a military alliance with the condottiere Hanneken von Baumgarten against its rival Magliano Sabina, in one of the many wars between the communes of the valley. In 1397 the town gave itself the Statutum Terrae Asprae, the code that would regulate civil life for centuries. In 1461 it repelled the siege of Federico da Montefeltro, one of the most notable military events of its history. In 1592 Pope Clement VIII confiscated the fief from Troilo Savelli and incorporated it into the Apostolic Chamber, closing the feudal age. Much later, in 1923, an almost incredible administrative transfer took place: the commune left the province of Perugia and Umbria to enter that of Rome, and in 1927 it merged into the new province of Rieti. Finally, in 1947, the town abandoned the millennium-old name of Aspra and became Casperia. Each date corresponds to a turning point that left a mark still visible today, in the walls, in the statutes, even on the road signs.

Who passed through Casperia (RI)

For a village of this size, the list of those who left a trace here is surprising, provided you distinguish between literary memory and documented presences. On the plane of ancient literature, the name of the place is tied to Virgil, who inscribes it in the catalog of the Italic peoples in the seventh book of the Aeneid, and to the authors who took it up, Silius Italicus, Vibius Sequester and the grammarian Servius. These are citations, not visits: none of them set foot up here, but their word weighed enough to make the town change its name in the 20th century. The story of real presences is different. The oldest concerns Pallas, the freedman of Antonia, mother of Claudius, to whose rustic villa the ruins of Paranzano point, a sign of an owner tied to the imperial house. In the Middle Ages the hill entered the orbit of the Savelli, the great Roman baronial family, and in 1461 it drew under its walls Federico da Montefeltro, the Duke of Urbino, who tried in vain to conquer it. The convent of Montefiolo, just outside the town, hosted Saint Felix of Cantalice, the Capuchin friar from nearby Cantalice later proclaimed a saint. In 1781 the noble palace welcomed Cardinal Corsini. Each of these passages belongs to a different register, myth, empire, war, sainthood, the Church, and together they tell of a small town never cut off from great history.

Casperia at an easy pace, slow tourism in the Sabina

In recent years Casperia has become one of the emblematic destinations of slow tourism in Lazio, and not because of fashion. The natural closure to traffic, the small scale of the village, the proximity to mountain routes and to the paths that climb toward Fonte Cognolo make it a place designed for walking and not for rushing. Anyone coming from Rome for a day trip can walk the whole historic center in a couple of hours, but the village rewards those who stay longer: a night in one of the residences inside the walls, a dinner with Sabina extra virgin oil and homemade pasta, a morning along the trails with the view of Soratte. The community is small and hospitable, even twinned with Killarney, in Ireland, another mountain and green town. To build a multi-day itinerary, Casperia combines well with the Abbey of Farfa and the village of Farfa, with Fara in Sabina, with Poggio Catino along the Tancia road, and farther north with Torri in Sabina and Montebuono. Anyone who wants to push toward the provincial capital finds Rieti about 30 kilometers away, gateway to the Franciscan holy valley.

When to go and how to organize the visit to Casperia

The ideal time is the shoulder season. In late spring the flowering windows that look onto the lanes are at their best and the temperature makes the climb pleasant. In early autumn the light turns clear and the surrounding countryside enters the olive harvest season, the heart of the local economy. Summer can be hot and the stone gives back the day's heat until evening, even if the altitude tempers it. Winter gives the monumental nativity scene in the square and a cozy atmosphere, but the icy stairways call for caution. For logistics it's worth remembering that you can't enter the walls by car: you leave the vehicle in the parking lots along the ring road and below the gates, and climb on foot. Anyone staying overnight has to plan on carrying luggage by hand. A day trip from Rome is entirely doable, but you get the best return by staying at least one night, to live the village in the hours when the visitors have gone and the town returns to its silence.

The extra virgin oil of the Sabina and the flavors of Casperia

Anyone arriving in Casperia soon notices that the landscape around the village is drawn by the olive tree. The countryside of the municipality is covered with olive groves that descend toward the Tiber and produce the protected-designation-of-origin extra virgin olive oil of the Sabina, one of the oldest olive-growing areas in Italy, with a tradition that reaches back to Roman times. It's not a postcard gastronomic detail: the olive harvest, in autumn, is still the rhythm that marks the farming life of the territory, and the new oil is the product around which a good part of the local economy revolves. For visitors, this means that a stop at the table is not a side dish to the outing but part of the reason to come. The cooking is the hearty, simple cooking of the inland Sabina, with handmade pasta dressed with the local oil, legumes, and mountain meats and cheeses. In summer the town devotes a festival to its typical dishes, an occasion to taste the local tradition in the setting of the walled village. Taking home a bottle of Sabina extra virgin, bought directly from an oil mill of the territory, is the most honest souvenir Casperia can offer.

The mountain of Casperia, the monumental trees and the springs

The municipal territory does not end at the walls of the village. It climbs toward some of the highest peaks of the Sabine Mountains, Monte Macchia Gelata at 1,258 meters and Monte Alto at 1,215 meters, and holds at 1,054 meters Fonte Cognolo, considered the most important perennial spring of the entire Sabine range. It's a lesser known face of Casperia but precious for those who love walking: the trails that climb to altitude offer wide views over the valley and the neighboring villages, and a coolness that in summer repays the effort. The territory also has four recorded monumental trees, true plant patriarchs protected for their age and size: the holm oak of Aspra, the terebinth of Montefiolo, the beech of Fonte Cognolo and the Turkey oak of Valle Ferrara. Looking for them is a good pretext to leave the historic center and understand how much the municipality is made also of woods, pastures and spring waters, and not only of medieval stone. Anyone who combines the visit to the village with half a day of walking takes home a more complete Casperia.

Monte Soratte seen from Casperia, Horace's mountain

From the viewpoints of the village, on clear days, the horizon to the west is closed by an isolated mountain with an unmistakable profile: Monte Soratte, which rises solitary in the middle of the Tiber valley. It's the same peak that the Latin poet Horace made famous in one of his best known odes, the one that opens with the image of Soratte covered in snow, an invitation to warm yourself by the fire and not to fret about tomorrow. Seeing that mountain from the walls of Casperia ties into a single glance the real landscape and the literary memory of the Sabina and the Roman countryside: the same land that Virgil names in the catalog of the Aeneid and that Horace, a Sabine landowner by choice, sang in his poetry of measure and retreat. You don't need to know the verses by heart to appreciate the view, but knowing that the cone on the horizon has 2,000 years of poetry behind it changes the way you look at it. It's also, in practice, the best backdrop for a photograph of the village.

The onion-bulb layout of Casperia explained properly

It's worth dwelling on how the village is built, because it's its most original feature. Casperia grows in concentric circles around the top of the hill. The streets don't follow a grid nor do they radiate from a central square: they wrap around the high core in rings, and each ring you climb is narrower and steeper than the last, until it closes at the summit in the square of San Giovanni Battista. The inhabitants describe this shape with the image of the onion bulb, the overlapping segments that protect the center. It was not an aesthetic choice but a defensive one: anyone who wanted to assault the village was forced to climb along forced routes, exposed from above at every turn, never able to aim in a straight line for the summit. It's the same principle that made the town impregnable to Federico da Montefeltro in 1461. For today's visitor that military logic becomes a walking experience: following the rings without looking for the shortcut you understand the structure of the village much better than by reading it in a guide, and you discover the views that open by surprise between one arch and the next. That's why it's best to climb slowly and without hurry.

Quick questions about Casperia (RI)

Where exactly is Casperia?

Casperia is in the province of Rieti, in Lazio, on the western slope of the Sabine Mountains at about 400 meters above sea level, between the left bank of the Tiber and the first foothills of the range. The reference address is Via Rivellini, postal code 02041.

How do you get to Casperia from Rome?

By car you take Via Salaria to Passo Corese and continue along State Road 313 toward Poggio Mirteto, for a total of just under 70 kilometers. From Rieti, about 30 kilometers away, you come down by the provincial road of Fonte Cerro or by the scenic Tancia road through Poggio Catino.

Can you enter the historic center of Casperia by car?

No. The historic center is closed to traffic by nature: the streets are narrow, steep and often stepped. You leave the car in the parking lots along the ring road and below the gates and continue on foot.

How much does it cost to visit Casperia?

Visiting the village is free: it's an inhabited town, not a paid site, and you walk freely through lanes and stairways. The churches follow service times and guided visits to the historic buildings and to the archive must be arranged with the Comune.

How much time do you need to visit Casperia?

A couple of hours is enough to walk the whole historic center. Anyone who wants to add the churches of the hamlets, the mountain trails or a stop at the table should allow a full day, or better a night on site.

Why was Casperia formerly called Aspra?

The medieval name was Aspra, or Aspra Sabina, and derived from the ruggedness of the hill or from a local family. In 1947 the town took the name of Casperia, from the learned conviction that the Sabine city cited by Virgil stood here and to avoid postal confusion with Aspra in Sicily and with Ascrea.

Is Casperia one of the Borghi più belli d'Italia?

Yes. Casperia is part of the Borghi più belli d'Italia circuit and has earned the Touring Club Italiano's Orange Flag, the recognition reserved for small inland towns for the quality of their welcome and environment.

What should you absolutely see in Casperia?

The parish church of San Giovanni Battista with the 13th-century Romanesque tower, the Church of the Santissima Annunziata with the canvas by Sassoferrato, the medieval gates of Porta Romana and Porta Santa Maria, the Arco di Mezzo of the 11th century, Palazzo Forani with its stone bears and the concentric plan of the village walked on foot.

Can you visit the Church of San Giovanni Battista?

The church opens according to the times of religious services. Inside are kept a painting of the Baptism of Christ by Giacomo Santoro from 1524 and a 17th-century organ. The 13th-century Romanesque bell tower holds 14th-century frescoes.

Is Casperia suitable for children?

Yes, with some care. The absence of traffic makes the village safe to walk, but the steep stairways and uneven paving call for attention and suitable shoes. Strollers are awkward on the stepped climbs.

Is Casperia accessible to people with mobility difficulties?

The historic center is demanding: big differences in level, steps and uneven paving make the visit hard for anyone with mobility problems or who uses a wheelchair. Anyone with special needs should check in advance with the Comune or with the lodging facilities.

Can you eat well in Casperia?

Yes. The area is the land of the protected-designation-of-origin extra virgin oil of the Sabina and of handmade pasta, and there is no shortage of trattorias and inns in the village and the surrounding area. In summer the festival devoted to the local typical dishes takes place.

Where to park in Casperia?

The parking lots are along the outer ring road and below the gates of the village. From there you continue on foot toward the historic center, which can't be reached by car.

What to see around Casperia?

The Rieti Sabina offers the Abbey of Farfa and its village, Fara in Sabina, Toffia, Roccantica, Poggio Catino along the Tancia road, Torri in Sabina and Montebuono. Rieti, with the Franciscan holy valley, is about 30 kilometers away.

What is the best time to go to Casperia?

Late spring and early autumn, for the light, the temperature and the flowering windows. Summer is hot but bearable thanks to the altitude. Winter offers the monumental nativity scene in the square, with the necessary caution on the icy stairways.

How many inhabitants does Casperia have?

Just over 1,200, according to the most recent data. It's a small village, which is part of its appeal and explains its small scale.

Is Casperia linked to Virgil?

Yes, through its name. Virgil cites Casperia in the seventh book of the Aeneid among the Sabine cities allied with King Turnus. From that citation came, in the 20th century, the choice to rename the ancient Aspra this way. That the village really coincides with the city of the poets remains, however, an unproven hypothesis.

Is it worth staying overnight in Casperia?

Anyone who can should. In the hours when the day visitors leave, the town goes back to its inhabitants and shows its most authentic face, silent and recollected. Some historic residences inside the walls, including part of Palazzo Forani, offer lodging.

If I had to say just one thing about Casperia, I'd say it's a town that has to be won with your legs: it gives nothing to those who arrive in a rush and leave again, and it gives back a great deal to those who have the patience to climb slowly, one ring after another, up to the bells at the top. Go out of season, wear serious shoes, and stay at least until sunset.

Article written by the editorial team of TourLeaderPro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

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