Corte della Maestà

All roads may lead to Rome, but there’s no one to stop you from pulling a U-turn. You won’t have to travel far outside the capital before the medieval village of Civita di Bagnoregio rises up into view on a hilltop before you. It’s a vision so magnificent that you’ll have a hard time believing that Italians once nicknamed the place “la cittá che muore” – the dying city. But natural disasters happen even in a landscape as bucolic as this one: an earthquake struck in 1685, and the residents fled, including the bishop, who abandoned his home and seminary.

Centuries later, an Italian psychologist and his wife bought the place. They kept part of the old bishop’s quarters for a second home, transforming the rest into a fantastically charming guesthouse called Corte della Maestà. The name means “Court of Majesty,” which might sound a bit overblown for a B&B — at least until you set foot inside.

It’s difficult to imagine a lovelier getaway in such convenient proximity to Rome. Arriving in the evening is particularly enchanting: glowing candles in heavy glass lanterns light your way through the ivy-framed doorway and into the arched stone passageways and brick-lined spaces of the old residence, where frescoes cover the ceilings and a fire burns inside an antique fireplace. There are just five rooms, all with views, each lovingly restored and furnished with the owner’s collection of original art and antiques. One room has a four-poster bed and a claw-foot iron tub, another has an original fresco, another a decorative headboard originally used in a 19th-century theatre production. An old-world charm is carefully preserved: there’s no TV or air-conditioning. But the owners are realistic, too, so there’s fast wi-fi everywhere on the property.

Use it, perhaps, to Instagram the picturesque breakfast under a massive fig tree, or the colorful garden blooming with giant hydrangeas, or the traditional cakes freshly baked each afternoon, or the local wine and cheese served by candlelight in the bishop’s old winery. If the weather is fair, Civita di Bagnoregio is impossibly charming to stroll around at night — note the fine family-run restaurants just off the cobblestoned piazza, and the long footbridge that connects the village to present-day Italy. But in any weather, Corte della Maestà, with its cozy library and a cellar complete with an old Forneris piano, is equally appealing. There’s no official restaurant, but there’s dinner, or aperitivi, or a great cheese board by the fireplace, on request. The Eternal City can wait, as far as we're concerned. This dying city is our kind of place.