Civita di Bagnoregio Events

Civita is too small to hold much of a calendar of its own, and the occasions that exist belong to Bagnoregio and to the valley.

The Palio della Tonna, June and September

A donkey race run twice a year in Civita’s own small square, with the districts of Bagnoregio competing. It is chaotic, extremely local, and the one day the village is full of people who belong to it.

Good Friday and the Presepe Vivente

The Good Friday procession crosses the bridge, which is as atmospheric as it sounds. At Christmas a living nativity is staged in the lanes and the rock-cut cellars, using the town itself as the set.

San Bonaventura, 15 July

Bagnoregio marks its most famous son, the theologian born here in the thirteenth century, with a procession and a fair on the far side of the valley.

The olive harvest

From late October the mills in the valley are working, including the rock-cut one inside Civita. New oil on bruschetta is the local dish of the season and needs no occasion.

Rooms inside Civita are few enough that they need booking well ahead in any month; Bagnoregio across the valley almost never fills.