Small Towns on the Edge

“Civita di Bagnoregio will inevitably disappear when the final pieces crumble into the spectacular [valley] below… Knowing that nothing can be done to prevent it makes your visit all the more special…” The city’s website says you should visit Civita precisely because it’s dying, and it’s now or never. So, we went for summer travel. We first laid eyes upon Civita from an overlook. We saw a stunning Medieval village rising up from valleys of olive trees to pierce the evening sky; its handful of stone houses were huddled together against a sheer cliff.

Because the town has only roughly a dozen full time residents, we became friends quickly. We cooked for each other, we shared stories and wine, we sweated together on the cursed bridge and on our hikes through the chalanchi. On our last day, we presented proposals to make the city more livable. The small lecture room was full, and so were our hearts.

Despite its spectacularly snatched figure, Civita faces the same problems as every small town. The lack of jobs, services, amenities, and investment drains residents. But, we realized it also had something missing: a tight bond between people and to a specific place that can only come through sustained care—through daily shared dinners an
d long conversations under the stars. That should be preserved for others to have the same experience. Unfortunately, for small towns everywhere, it is also now or never as their populations collapse. But, do we care? What do we stand to lose? The countryside is more than an image, it is the assertion that humans ought to be rooted to a place, to a community, to a sense of continuity and intimate commonality that is slipping between our fingers.