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In Italy, near Rome, a charming village threatens to collapse. Civita di Bagnoreggio is a city suspended on a peak rocky that crumbles. A million tourists come to admire it every year.
Connected to the rest of the world by a narrow footbridge, Civita di Bagnoreggio (Italy) has 2,500 years of history. It is one of the Italian villages that one would think insensitive to the onslaught of time, and which fascinates tourists. “It’s an antique and romantic atmosphere at the same time”, confides a woman. In its few stone houses, Civita di Bagnoreggio today houses only 11 inhabitants, a few shops and five restaurants. With his old souvenir albums, the restaurateur Manuela Mostarda is one of the memories of the hamlet. “At the time, the only means of locomotion was the donkey”, she confides.
Away from the main roads, the village doesTo for a long time hardly attracted. Over the past fifteen years, tourists have become very numerous: in 2021, the town saw a landing of no less than a million visitors. Tourists come for the charm of the hamlet, but also to note its state of disrepair: entire sections of the village have been washed away by erosion. The rocky outcrop on which Civita di Bagnoreggio sits crumbles, because the rocks are very friable. “It’s like a kind of cooled foam”, explains geologist Luca Costantini. Emergency works were launched a few years ago.