Lubriano (a village of approximately 900 inhabitants in the Viterbo province. 5km northwest of Civita di Bagnoregio, on the opposite tufo cliff across the calanchi valley) has a specific relationship with its more famous neighbor that defines both: the view from the Lubriano terrace over the calanchi (the deeply eroded clay gullies, the specific badland landscape produced by the erosion of the unstable Pliocene blue clay beneath the tufo caprock) to the isolated mesa of Civita di Bagnoregio in the middle distance is the finest and most freely accessible panoramic view of the "città che muore" (the dying city, the epithet that the writer and filmmaker Bonaventura Tecchi gave Civita in his 1938 essays, a phrase that has since become the standard description of the gradually eroding tufo mesa on which the village stands). The Civita di Bagnoregio panorama photographed from the Lubriano terrace (the cliff edge viewpoint on the south side of the village, with the calanchi in the foreground and the Civita mesa rising in the middle distance against the Tiber valley backdrop) is the canonical image of Civita that appears in every Italy photograph collection, and it is taken from Lubriano, not from Civita itself.
The specific Lubriano advantage: the entry to Civita di Bagnoregio now requires payment (the access tax introduced in 2017 to limit the tourist numbers on the fragile tufo bridge. €5 in low season, €10 in high season). The Lubriano viewpoint costs nothing and provides the most photogenic angle. For the visitor who wants to see Civita without paying the access tax, or who wants the best photography angle, Lubriano is the correct choice.
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Lubriano: The View and the Village
The Calanchi Landscape
The calanchi (the badland gullies, a landscape type characteristic of the Pliocene clay formations of central Italy, where the clay erodes rapidly in winter rains to produce the specific deeply-incised gray-white gully landscape visible between Lubriano and Civita) are a landscape that appears inhospitable but has a specific geological beauty: the sharp ridges, the white-gray clay walls, and the occasional tufo remnants standing as isolated columns in the gully floor produce a landscape that has no equivalent in Italy outside the specific Orvieto-Bagnoregio zone and the Crete Senesi of southern Tuscany. The calanchi below Lubriano are accessible by foot from the village (the path from the Lubriano cliff edge descends into the gullies, but is steep and becomes slippery in wet weather, visit in dry conditions).
The Lubriano Village
The Lubriano village center (the medieval borgo (historic village) on the tufo cliff, with the church of Sant'Agostino and the palazzo of the Monaldeschi family, the medieval Orvieto lords who held Lubriano) is worth 45 minutes of exploration in its own right: the tufo architecture (the specific warm orange-yellow of the local tufo used for every building), the cliff-edge gardens and the specific vertigo of the western terrace (where the cliff drops into the calanchi), and the quiet of a village that receives a fraction of the visitors that cross to Civita each day.
Q&A: Lubriano and Civita di Bagnoregio
Is the Lubriano view of Civita better in morning or afternoon?
Morning (sunrise to 10:00): the east light hits the Civita mesa face-on, producing the warm golden-pink illumination of the tufo and the long shadows of the tower and houses, the most atmospheric photography light, with mist possible in the calanchi below in spring and autumn. Afternoon (16:00 to sunset): the western light backlights the Civita mesa, producing dramatic silhouette effects but losing the tufo texture detail. For the canonical golden-light documentary photograph: morning. For the dramatic silhouette: late afternoon. For the general panorama: any clear day.
