Wonderful Viterbo

It was a cold Sunday morning in Rome when my family and I decided to go to a place called Viterbo. My friend also joined me. It was one hour away from Rome, where we lived. My father attached his new GPS in our car. We had all packed our lunch in our bags.
We started our journey at 9:30 in the morning. On the way, I enjoyed the beautiful landscape dotted with cypress trees and mustard fields. It was a blur of green and yellow. I had never seen Italy like this before, all I had seen was the crowded streets of Rome, where cars moved at snail’s pace through the ruins of ancient Rome and people walked their dogs or had a chat with each other.

Soon, we arrived at a small town known as Ronciglione. It struck me as funny because the road I lived in Rome was called Via Ronciglione. Ronciglione was a town with a lot of grand old buildings, impressive arches and gates. My mother, who was reading a guide book, said that the town was ruled by the Roman Emperors just like Viterbo.

My father, who was driving, decided to explore this town. My friend agreed to go with him and so did I. The only person who did not want to go was my mother. Eventually, she stayed in the car.

We went to explore the city on foot. My father was leading the way. First, we went to a park. I saw a lot of ancient fountains and also caught a glimpse of a few ponies. My father took a lot of pictures of this mesmerising park. Finally, after seeing the park, we headed to the parking lot. But when I reached there, I got a bit carried away and started running to our car.

Just when I was about to reach the car, a dog started chasing me. I was petrified and started running as fast as I could! Just when the dog was about to get me, an old lady called it. The dog obediently went back to her. She said that the dog was only playing and would not hurt me, as she patted the dog on its head. Now that I had a closer look and realised that it was a puppy, I was no longer afraid. We resumed our journey after this hair-raising incident.

Instant cure for boredom!

My mother was very interested in the scenery and stopped reading the guidebook. Meanwhile, I was really bored so I took the guidebook and read it. It said that Viterbo was one of the favourite residences of the Popes, in a period when they had difficulties asserting their authority over Rome. It also said that it was the birthplace of Latino Latini, who was a scholar of the Renaissance. As my mother had told me, the book said that Viterbo was famous for marble, wood and gold.

We arrived in Viterbo after two hours. The city had two parts: the modern and the ancient. The ancient part was well-preserved and I have to admit that it was more impressive and beautiful than the modern part.  

In fact, when we reached there, I felt that it had an uncanny resemblance to the landscape in my favourite video game ‘The Assassin’s Creed-3’. The narrow cobbled paths, the culverts, the fountains, the tiny houses made of stones transported us back to the Medieval Age. I would not have been surprised to meet a knight riding a horse around the corner!  

The main tourist attraction was the Palazzo Dei Papi, where the Popes of Italy took refuge when there was trouble in Rome. As we were already running out of time, we decided to skip the Palazzo and visited the nearest monument, which was the Piazza San Lorenzo church.

We went on foot, as the streets were too narrow for our car. This church was breath-taking. It was built in the 13th Century on a site of an Etruscan temple dedicated to Hercules. The church was a Romanesque structure. Its roof was made up of wood and its walls and floor were made up of coloured marble depicting flowers and plants. Inside the church there was a small sculpture. I guessed that it was of one of the two Popes buried here. After seeing the church, I had a gelato at an ice cream parlour. The shopkeeper told us all he knew about India. This surprised me: a person living in Italy knowing more about India than most Indians! We headed to the place where we had parked our car and set out to Lago Di Vico, a lake. We had decided to have lunch there.  After reaching the place we spread a mat on the ground and started eating our food. The food prepared by my mother was heavenly. We had delicious biriyani, raita and rajma. The place where we were sitting overlooked Lake Vico and there was also a passage which would let you go closer to the water. I wanted to see the lake, but my father decided otherwise and said it was far too dangerous to go there. Though I could not go there, I enjoyed the gardens in which we were. I felt as if I was in a jungle and a soldier on a deadly mission, as the park looked like a forest with so many different plants and trees! Ferns and mosses were growing on huge cypress trees and wild flowers of all shades were in abundance.

After we had lunch and played, it was finally time to end this outing and head back to home in Rome.

The drive back home was equally adventurous because, as usual, we misinterpreted the GPS and had a very circuitous journey! Viterbo was one journey I will never forget in my lifetime.

It was very memorable because it was my first family outing in Italy and it was also the first time my father drove his car which is a left-hand drive.