Viterbo – The Pope Water springs
Everywhere I go, everywhere I look, I am surrounded by history. It’s like I am cursed with seeing things from the past. Well, I am finding myself in Viterbo, an Italian fortress situated 80Km North of Rome, surrounded by the mountains: Monti Cimini and Monti Volsini. The place was an Etruscan settlement called Surenna. The Roman army destroyed the Etruscan centres but benefited greatly from this civilisation. The city is one the best preserved places in central Italy in terms of architecture. The first report of the city dates to the eighth century CE, when it is identified as Castrum Viterbii. It was fortified in 773 by the Lombard King Desiderius in his vain attempt to conquer Rome. When the popes switched to the Frankish support, Viterbo became part of the Papal States, but this status was to be highly contested by the emperors in the following centuries, until 1095 from which it is known that it became a free commun...