Arpino has 7,386 inhabitants on the left bank of the Liri, below the acropolis known as Civitavecchia, and the name is said to come from the shape of the town seen from above, which recalls a harp. Out of here came two men who saved the Roman republic: Gaius Marius, who defeated the Germans, and Marcus Tullius Cicero, born here in 106 before Christ. Local tradition tells that Marius, at the height of his glory, having Transalpine Gaul as conquered land, gave its revenues to his own town, and with those Arpino maintained its temples and public buildings.
The acropolis is still shut inside polygonal walls called cyclopean, and one enters it through a gate of a kind found nowhere else: a pointed arch, which is really a corbelled arch. Above the Porta Napoli a Latin inscription tells of the city's foundation and of the eagle that takes flight from here hinc ad imperium, towards empire. Arpino was razed to the ground twice, by Frederick II and then in 1252 by Conrad IV, and on that occasion many Roman remains were lost. A painter takes his name from the town too, the Cavalier d'Arpino, who left in the church of San Michele an Archangel victorious over Lucifer.
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📅 Every year, on 10 December; the weekend after Ferragosto brings the Gonfalone di Arpino palio, since 1971
Arpino celebrates Our Lady of Loreto on 10 December. Since 1971, on the Saturday and Sunday after Ferragosto, the Gonfalone di Arpino is held, a palio among the town's districts.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Arpino, but an easy day trip away.
