The title is misleading because the day started and ended in Tuscany but it was in reality spent in the neighbouring Lazio region.
The rain that accompanied our journey in Tuscany, followed us down the motorway into Umbria and then Lazio.
It seemed that it has eased off, only to start again - and carry on all day - once we got to our first destination: the Sacro Bosco ("scared grove") or Parco dei Mostri ("Park of the Monsters") of Bomarzo.
'Tu ch'entri qua pon mente parte a parte et dimmi poi se tante maraviglie sien fatte per inganno o pur per arte.'
(You who enter here put your mind to it part by part, and tell me later if all these wonders were made for trickery or for art).
Bomarzo is an old town in the province of Viterbo and was ruled by the Orsinis, a family that with the Colonnas and Borgheses features heavily in the history of Rome and the papacy.
This garden was created by Pier Francesco Orsini (aka Vicino Orsini) in the mid 16th century.
It is spectacular and unlike any other Italian garden of the period. Vicino Orsini was a learned man and also a captain in the army, serving under the Popes for many years.
No-one really knows why he built this garden.
Someone says that Vicino was a disillusioned man and he left his military career disgusted after pope Paul IV ordered the destruction of a rebellious village and the execution of all its inhabitants and that his garden reflects his disappointment with the world; others attribute esoteric meanings to the garden, its inscriptions and its stony inhabitants (the 'sacred' bit of the name comes from this school of thought - Vicino apparently simply named it 'Boschetto' - little grove); and finally some people suspect that the garden - which include many statues with links to contemporary poems by Ariosto and Boiardo - was created for a bit of fun.
I guess it's really up to the visitors to decide how to read the garden. I am probably more inclined to the 'bit of fun' theory (call me shallow, if you must! LOL)
The 'garden' is strewn with gigantic statues, sculpted in situ from the soft volcanic rock.
It was fascinating to visit, in spite of the rain (I was extra careful not to slip!)
You can enter the first floor of this leaning house; it is quite a challenge to walk around and felt really dizzy in there!
'Voi che pel mondo gite errando vaghi di veder meraviglie alte et stupende venite qua, dove son facce horrende, elefanti, leoni, orchi et draghi.'
(You who wander around the world hoping to see tall and stupendous wonders come here, where there are horrible faces, elephants, lions, ogres and dragons)
'Ogni pensiero vola' (Every thought flies)
[Apparently it used to be 'Lasciate ogni pensiero voi ch'entrate' - Abandon all thoughts you who come in, adapted from Dante's Divina Commedia. The 'LA' indeed looks different.]
(Night and day we are alert and ready to guard this spring from any injury)
The Orsini's bear (bear is orso in Italian)
After Vicino's death the bosco was forgotten and abandoned, and 're-discovered' only last century by surrealists such as Dali'. But it is thanks to the Bettini family that it got restored in the 1970s and opened to the public.
The ticket office/cafe' is decorated with pictures from the 1950s or 1960s and it's amazing to see how different it looked then, with not much vegetation.
The second stop of the day was equally breath-taking.
Civita di Bagnoregio is an old village founded by the Etruscans over 2,500 years ago on top of a plateau of soft volcanic rock which has been crumbling away for centuries.
When a powerful earthquake struck the town in the 17th century much of the plateau and a large part of the town collapsed: Civita was virtually abandoned and the nearby village of Bagnoregio became the main town.
Since then the erosion has worsened: Civita is known as "La citta' che muore" (the town that is dying). It is connected to Bagnoregio by a steep - and very much exposed to the elements - viaduct (which replaces an earlier bridge blown up by the Germans in WWII).
Now only 12 people live in Civita all-year-round but in the summer they get about 3,000 tourists every day!
Here we were in an old house, resting above some caves used by the Etruscan. This is a frantoio, an olive oil mill.
The cave has a great view of the ravines surrounding the village.
As we were walking back down, the clouds were moving in
By the time we went back to the belvedere from which we had our fist glimpse of the village, you could hardly see anything!
On the way back from Civita we drove through Bolsena, on the namesake lake but we didn't stop as it was pouring with rain and the lake was just a sheet of grey!
Once back in Tuscany we made a short detour to Bagni San Filippo, a village known for its hot springs. But we didn't manage to locate the limestone formations.
This is all we saw. (The air was pungent with sulphur)
I got out of the car and visited a cave which had been used by a local saint/hermit in the Middle Ages and that is now a chapel, but it was just too wet and turning dark for further exploration.
Back in Murlo, we went for dinner to the same restaurant for the third time running.
The tagliata was superb!!
All tucked in for an early night and another day of sightseeing!