Ronciglione has 8,308 inhabitants in the Cimini mountains, on a tuff ledge at the meeting of two watercourses: the Rio Vicano, which flows out of Lake Vico, and the Fosso Chianello, which since the Farnese fills of the sixteenth century runs underground. The oldest document naming the town is from 1103. On the coat of arms two golden lions hold a roncio, that is a billhook: the town's name put into a picture.
Under the Farnese, from 1526, Ronciglione was an uncommon manufacturing centre: ironworks, copperworks, paper mills, ceramics, armouries and printing houses, and here were printed the first Italian editions of Tassoni's Secchia rapita and Tasso's Aminta. Then came the trouble: in July 1799 the French troops of general Valterre set fire to the town, burning 174 buildings and the whole historical archive; on 5 June 1944 a bombing killed three hundred people, and for that the comune holds the bronze medal for civil valour.
Carbonara · Orvieto
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Next up: Saint Bartholomew the Apostle, patron of one of Italy's most beautiful carnivals, Tuesday 24 August
Nearest airport: Roma Fiumicino, 54 km away
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📅 Every year, on 24 August; the Carnival ranks among Italy's ten most beautiful
Ronciglione celebrates Saint Bartholomew the Apostle on 24 August. Born from the Renaissance and Baroque Roman carnival tradition, the Ronciglione Carnival is considered among the ten most beautiful in Italy, with the Hussars' cavalcade recalling a historical 19th-century ride of French soldiers.
A white wine carved into Etruscan tufa history, toasted by Garibaldi's Thousand: Orvieto has held Denominazione di Origine Controllata status since 1971.
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The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Ronciglione, but an easy day trip away.
