Civita di Bagnoregio, without the crowds

Civita is not an excursion for us. It is the view from our own hill — close enough to watch the light change on it, far enough to watch the crowds come and go.

How to visit Civita di Bagnoregio at its best?

They call it the dying city: a fragment of tufa and a few restored dwellings telling stories of its distant past, connected to the world only by a footbridge, eroded a little more every year, and loved a little more every year. But by late morning the bridge is a queue and Civita's narrow alleys are a slow procession. It is still beautiful. It is simply not the place we fell in love with over 25 years ago.

My goal is simple: to offer you the old Civita, away from the mass, walking in only when the mass walks out. Civita in the last hour of light, when the day-trippers are back on their coaches, is a different village — lamplit, silent, yours. That is the Civita I want you to meet.

How you sleep decides the rest. With the Bespoke way in, you walk the bridge as the crowds leave, dine in the village, and then come home — back across the valley to Il Casone, to your own beds, with Civita glowing in the distance behind you.

With Golden or Platinum, you take home a little more of Civita: you still walk the bridge against the tide of tourists, then call the most charming B&B in the village — owned by friends of ours — your home for the night. The next morning you enjoy silence and peace, what Civita's essence should be. You walk out as the mass walks in and, once back at Il Casone, you lounge by the pool while the crowds are dealing with heat and queues — cherishing deep in your heart what makes Civita so special, and dealing only with your second coffee, your one queue of the day.

Either way, the rule holds: you are where the crowd is not. That, more than anything else, is what luxury means here at Il Casone, between Umbria, Tuscany and Rome.

The mass visits Civita. You will meet it.