Fast eroding and with a population of six, the Roman village ripe for rescue

IT HAS survived occupation and invasion from the Etruscans to the Nazis, but a hilltop village that could be the most beautiful in Italy is fighting what may be a losing battle against nature.

Civita di Bagnoregio perches on top of a plug of volcanic rock, surrounded by deep canyons and sharply eroded ridges of white clay, and is accessible only by a narrow foot bridge.

In the Middle Ages it held around 3,000 people. Now the permanent population, in winter, is about six. Yet while the village, 75 miles north of Rome, is the victim of steady erosion and landslides it is being visited by more people than ever and is the subject of a passionate campaign to save it.

This year some 600,000 tourists have visited it, up from 42,000 six years ago. The numbers grew after a visit by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009, and a drive by the local council to encourage films and TV commercials to be shot there.

Even by Italian standards, Civita di Bagnoregio is stunning. The main piazza is flanked by stone houses, a bell tower and a 13th-century church, with a line of Roman marble columns in front. But landslides have sheared off great chunks of the village’s biscuitcoloured, friable flanks, toppling houses into the valley below.

A campaign has been launched for it to be given World Heritage status by Unesco, the UN’s cultural body, in the hope of attracting more funds for its preservation. The case for Unesco listing will be presented in January to the Italian government, which will then pass it on to Unesco in Paris, with a decision expected in 2017.