3. Rome to Todi via Calcata. April 13 2023

May 20, 2025

April 13, 2023
Ciao!

We left the Donna Camilla Savelli Hotel right after breakfast, after 2.5 packed days and nights in Rome. Headed for the train station (Termini) to pick up our rental car at Hertz. After a quick check-in despite lines of people trying to rent cars (pays to rent cars a lot as they zip you through) and headed to the garage to pick up the car (we had reserved a small automatic car). When we got there, they handed us the keys to a huge monstrous car with manual transmission that we would call an SUV; remember I drive a mini cooper! The Hertz guy said this was a “standard size car” and that all the auromatic transmission cars were taken. While I drove a stick shift for years (Mike too), it’s been a while. Funny how life changes. Up until 2012, I always drove manual and refused to drive an automatic car. But now, a decade later after having a Prius and then my new Mini, I just couldn’t imagine driving stick again. (Mike drives a Prius which is also much smaller than what they were giving us.) We went back to the little office to say that there clearly was a mistake. They found a smaller car and we put all the luggage in… but then we noticed that it, too, was stick shift. We left our luggage in that car and headed back to the train station to see if we could find something else with another company. We got to Sixt (our least favorite car rental company and where we recently had problems in Amman, Jordan)… But they had a smaller car (BMW) that was automatic; we went back to the car area to check it out and to confirm that our luggage would fit in the trunk (one suitcase—carry on size–for each of us and one computer rollie bag each). Everything checked out, so we had to go back to the Termini office for Sixt to do the paperwork and then back to the garage. In total, walked 7,000 steps only in the train station and garage to rent a car. Three miles? Then we had to go back to Hertz to get our bags out of the trunk of that other car. One funny incident— the Sixt guy who walked with us from the office to the garage to show us the car options said I walked very very fast, not like most Americans; I said I was from NY originally and he laughed saying he now understood. He was also very impressed that we were from Oakland since he’s a big basketball fan (although he cheers for the Lakers). As we walked he also told us that he follows U.S. politics and the U.S. economy because he has been investing in tech stocks and doesn’t trust Italian banks with his money.

Finally, two hours after we arrived at the station, we were off to Calcata enroute to Todi where we will stay for three nights.

It began to rain as we drove, and got heavier as we climbed the small very curvy single lane (two-way) roads to Calcata. Calcata is tiny… Only 93 people reside in the little village hamlet and a total of about 900 if you include the surrounding area (not sure how many miles that line goes). By then we were totally starving, but the only place open (actually we were pretty amazed there was even a “restaurant” in this tiny village) was the town bar, where a very cheery guy made paninis and served alcohol (we opted for water given that we still had more driving to do). While he spoke no English at all, we did fine ordering and having a fairly simple conversation. He was born and raised in Calcata (!!). There isn’t any school in the village so he had to be bussed somewhere to attend school. He loves Calcata. Once he served us, he went outside to play cards with a bunch of locals—beneath a large, faded poster of Arizona.

Calcata towers above deep gorges at about 800 feet where torrential water flows or so we are told. The little village covers the entire table top of these shear free-standing cliffs. We just barely walked into the real village because of the pouring rain but did walk around the edges, and we did drive across the bridge above the gorge to the edge of the earthen column on which the village sits. That’s where the little bar was. In the 1801 writings of the executioner of the Papal State (if I understood this correctly as the historical note in town was not written in great English) two guards were reportedly accused of robbery near Calcata and sentenced to execution. The public execution took place in Piazza del Popolo in Rome.

But Calcata’s charm is that it is a medieval village that clings to this volcanic cliff that seems to rise from nowhere in this densely forested area. With steep pathways, the actual historic village is car-free because the passageways are too narrow even for a little Fiat. Cars do get up into that area where the bar was and like in all of Italy, cars are sort of strewn wherever anyone can figure out where they can fit. Some describe it all as a fairytale… The history goes back 3,000 years and they can trace human presence to prehistoric times. In the 1930s the Fascist government condemned the village because they believed its foundations were unstable, and by 1960 the residents had either relocated to the newly-built “Calcata Nuova” which was nearby, or moved to Rome and other areas in Italy. But in the 70s Italian and international artists and hippies began squatting in Calcata’s abandoned houses and caves. Eventually they bought and restored their residences, opened galleries and cafes, and “rescued” this old village… or so the story goes. The story comes full circle because the new residents and “entrepreneurs” convinced the Italian officials to reverse the condemnation plans.

Since we were there on a very rainy Thursday, it looked fairly gloomy, but we were told there’s a lot more activity on weekends and that the villagers like their solitude. I would die within 48 hours here, although they now have internet access, but no mail delivery.

One resident artist does an annual nativity scene with handcrafted statues depicting real people who live in Calcata.

From Calcata we headed to Todi.. We were really tired and the driving was tough in the rain, and it was getting dark. So we pulled over in a little parking lot of a hotel just near the entrance to the autostrada for a little 20-minute nap in the car. The hotel was called the Park Sabina and the sign said “A Hotel for Business and Romance”…. ??? I actually went inside to use the ladies room and expected it to feel sort of kinky, but it was quite nice. Maybe, what happens in the Sabina stays in the Sabina.

Twenty minutes later, totally rested and restored (!) we headed to Todi. We are staying in a wonderful 600-year old palazzo that was built on top of a Roman amphitheater that was built on top of Etruscan ruins. And to think that we believe our 130-year-old Victorian house in Oakland is old! I’ll tell you all about Todi which is unbelievably breathtaking, in my post later tonight or tomorrow, so as to be able to finish this one now.

The palazzo we are staying in is currently owned by friends from NY (the parents of our godson’s wife). But before we could get to the palazzo we needed to find the place… and then figure out where to put the car. The streets that wind up through the whole town are–like all medieval towns—narrow and steep. And Todi is no exception. We had a pretty good idea of where to go from notes that were sent to us, but it’s still different in the flesh. Turns out we drove past the place twice even though we were following GPS very closely… and then finally figured it out. By then it was really pouring. Mike stopped the car and I jumped out; we got all the luggage and odds and ends from the car and put them on the side of the street, as two cars waited behind us. Mike then left and I somehow maneuvered an umbrella and the bags across the little cobblestone street, found the keys, opened the door and waited for Mike.. He did pretty well finding parking although we later realized he was parked pretty illegally and partially blocking someone’s door, so we moved the car this morning.

The palazzo is huge—my guess about 2,500 sq feet with ceilings heights at about 11 feet. Mike says my guess is pretty good, but it may be more like 2,100 feet… Anyway, it’s up a flight of stairs (internal stairs once you enter) and has lots of rooms. Indeed this morning we discovered another bathroom we hadn’t even found last night. Officially there are two bedrooms (or let’s say, two rooms with beds), an entry room with grand piano (which I assume was here when they bought the place because I cannot imagine how you could get it out, an eat-in kitchen, a dining room, a very large living room, a library, and three bathrooms (one does not have a shower). The rooms all connect so you feel as if you are constantly going in a circle. More on the house and the town tomorrow.. Lots to explore. We did go for late dinner—climbing I’m not sure how many steep stairs—at Umbria Ristorante where we shared the veal tartare which was delicious and huge, a pasta carbonara that was excellent, a wild boar dish, and a rabbit dish and a bottle of wine… and a “calorie-free” dessert (my words—to assuage the guilt). Had we realized the portions would be so huge, we would have ordered less. But we were famished and it was a trying day. By the time we left the restaurant it was about 11:00pm and we strolled between the raindrops back “home.” Tomorrow we explore.