Soriano nel Cimino sits on a basalt ridge in the Cimini Mountains (the volcanic range between the Lake Vico caldera and the Tiber valley, north of Viterbo in the area historically known as Tuscia) at approximately 510 meters above sea level, looking west over the Cimini forest and east toward the Tiber valley. It is the kind of Lazio hill town that exists in dozens of variations across the region, the medieval stone village organized around a castle, the piazza with the church and the palazzo, the surrounding agricultural territory that has sustained the community for centuries, but with two specific features that distinguish it from the generic Lazio hill town: the Castello Orsini (the 13th-century castle that the Orsini family expanded into a major fortified residence in the 14th-15th centuries, with its specific square tower visible from the valley below) and the Fontana Papacqua (the 16th-century fountain in the lower part of the village, decorated with the specific grotesque sculpture that links it to the contemporary Bomarzo "Garden of Monsters" 20km to the southeast, the same patron family, the same taste for the bizarre and unsettling in decorative art).
How do you want to see it?
Lazio, ItalyCompare the same experience on GetYourGuide and Viator, save what you like to My Trip, share it, and book when you’re sure. Nearest to this page first.
Soriano nel Cimino: What to See
The Orsini Castle
The Castello Orsini (the 14th-century expansion of the original 13th-century tower, incorporating the specific Orsini family architectural ambitions that their properties throughout Lazio and Umbria express) dominates the village from its rock-cut northern promontory. The castle interior is periodically open for events and exhibitions (check comune.sorianонelcimino.vt.it for current access, the regular museum program has varied over the years with the municipal budget). The exterior and the panoramic terrace are accessible as part of the village walk. The castle's specific historical moment: the meeting between Pope Boniface VIII and the French ambassador Nogaret at Soriano in 1303 (the prelude to the Schiaffo di Anagni, the assault on the Pope by Philip IV of France's agents that humiliated the papacy and accelerated the Avignon period) took place in this castle.
Fontana Papacqua
The Fontana Papacqua (in the lower Soriano, at the end of the Valle dei Mulini path from the village center) is a 16th-century fountain fed by the specific Cimini volcanic spring that the village has drawn water from since the medieval period. The decorative program, grotesque masks, monsters, and hybrid figures carved in the local basalt, connects directly to the contemporary Bomarzo Garden of Monsters (commissioned by the Orsini patron Vicino Orsini in the same period, with the same aesthetic program of deliberate strangeness) and represents the specific 16th-century taste for the grotesque that Raphael's Vatican Logge had made fashionable throughout the Italian aristocracy.
Sagra delle Castagne (October)
The Cimini Mountains produce excellent chestnuts, the specific volcanic basalt soil and the altitude create the conditions for Castanea sativa cultivation that the mountain communities have managed for centuries. Soriano nel Cimino's Sagra delle Castagne (typically held in the last two weekends of October) is the principal celebration of this harvest tradition: roasted chestnuts (caldarroste) in the piazza, chestnut-flour preparations, the local Nocino (the walnut liqueur that the Cimini tradition produces in addition to the chestnut), and the specific October mountain atmosphere of the Cimini woods in autumn color.
Q&A: Soriano nel Cimino
How do I get to Soriano nel Cimino from Rome?
By car: approximately 90km north of Rome on the A1 (exit Orte) then SP on the Cimini road. Total driving time approximately 1.5 hours. By public transport: COTRAL bus from Saxa Rubra or from Viterbo (the more practical approach, train to Viterbo from Roma Ostiense, then COTRAL to Soriano, total approximately 2.5 hours). Soriano is best combined with nearby Bomarzo (20km, the Garden of Monsters) and Bagnaia (15km, the Villa Lante with its Renaissance water garden) for a full Tuscia day trip.
