Montefiascone Italy
Lazio - Tuscia

Montefiascone Italy - Lazio - Tuscia

"Once upon a time the whole region was full of volcanoes. The large caldara of a former volcano is lake Bolsena; Montefiascone dominates it, 600 m high. Its inhabitants are generous, creative and a bit mad. Etruscan heritage, perhaps? The fact is that, in its coat of arms you see the victory of the "joie de vivre": two branches, one laurel and one oak, surrounding low hills with a small barrel on top. From its fortress, built and fortified in 1207, the view is breathtaking. It’s as if the lake, the hills with olive trees and vines, the bluish mountains enclosing the plain were the natural frame of an ideal park.

In the town you can still see remains of the Renaissance, palaces, squares often with a church in the middle and small, secret gardens.
More subdued, in fact removed from the city walls, is San Flaviano, an architectural jewel from the XII century, made of two superimposed churches, with the beautiful fresco of San Flaviano, riding a white horse and holding a flag with the cross. In the third chapel you find the tombstone of the German nobleman Giovanni Fugger who, on the road to Rome
In 1110 following emperor Henry V, wanted to go through Tuscia on a private "wine itinerary" of his own. A faithful servant preceded him, in charge of tasting the wine in the inns and giving them marks: "Est", that is "here the wine is good". When he reached Montefiascone, the wine was so good that the servant wrote "est" three times. Hence the name of the most famous wine of the area, the white Est Est Est. Mr. Fugger liked it so much, and drank so much of it that he died, leaving ten thousand gold coins in charity and ordering to remember the anniversary of his death by pouring wine over his tomb. The tassels of the pillow on his tomb are in the form of goblets."

Either taste has changed over the years – or I have made a mistake selecting the wine maker!

Below “Rocca di Papa” (even if it seems painful, one should make the effort and walk up to the Rocca for the sake of the splendid view one has from up there) lies the cathedral and its Cardinal’s palace.

An absolute “must” is the church of San Flaviano. You get there easily driving down Via Cavour, pass the gate – the church is just the other side, the façade of the upper nave looking at us. Reserved and somewhat unapproachable it seems at first sight; walking down some stairs you will get to the most impressive and worthwhile to see old roman nave: Star shaped vaults lie on allegoric capitals carried by thin columns; some of the frescoes on the walls are very well preserved. A place of silence, quietness and harmony – one can feel the atmosphere of times long gone.