The boulders have proven irresistible to humans for millennia. They’ve been carved into many forms – utilitarian, spiritual, whimsical. The “Pyramid” above is among the more mysterious. Is it an Etruscan altar? Ancient altars abound in the vicinity, some with Latin inscriptions. And tombs, both Roman and Etruscan.

Hidden in the woods nearby are remains of a sixth-century settlement called Santa Cecilia. The secluded location would have been chosen for safety in that chaotic period. There were rock habitations, a church and rock-cut graves.

Vicino Orsini, a 16th-century nobleman of Bomarzo, had dozens of boulders intricately carved and arranged to create a “Sacred Wood.” Nicknamed “Park of the Monsters,” it’s a delightful sculpture garden of arcane Renaissance symbolism.

Caves in the rock were inhabited from ancient times until the last century, for spiritual retreat or simply to escape from a dangerous world.

Inscriptions near the Pyramid mark the boundary of the Domitii brothers’ brick mill. Stamps on bricks at the Colosseum are from this mill. They would have been transported to Rome by barge on the nearby Tiber River.

More to see along the way...