Travelling to offbeat places and discovering unspoiled locations are things that bring you fresh experiences and extra adventure as you travel. The more you explore, the more chapters you gain to add to your life. The world is full of amazing places and unusual places that are a real treasure and should be on everyone's bucket list. Today, let's go to Italy and discover a small isolated town that is only accessible by a footbridge and which is a little town on the plateau with a long and intriguing history. It is one of the places on earth that will soon disappear and is worth a visit in a lifetime!
The place is called Civita di Bagnoregio, a small village in central Italy on the border of the province of Umbria. This city was founded 2500 years ago, something almost unbelievable! The original city and its area were much larger, as the plateau on which it is located was much larger and higher. According to studies and archives, it is shown that the city had almost 3000 inhabitants. Today, the city stands about 300-500 feet high, which is a reduced height due to extensive erosions and seismic activity over the years. At present, the high-lying and isolated city has only 7 inhabitants. The plateau is formed by sea clay and the top layer is made of tuff or lava. The plateau where the city is located is in continuous erosion due to wind, soil erosion, landslides, deforestation and so on, which almost inevitably writes the tragic future of this town.
As far as town layout is concerned, in addition to the damage and destruction caused by uncontrollable natural events, the town has retained most of its original architecture and designs, mainly due to its location which is so isolated and remote from the rest of the mainland. This is the reason why the city has escaped the effects of modernisation and industrialisation. Although the city suffered irreversible damage which is evident in the fact that the original town consisted of two towns, one of the sister towns declined, unfortunately, due to the natural activities previously mentioned. The town of Civita di Bagnoregio, today, has to depend on the larger town of Bagnoregio which is connected by a 984-foot footbridge for everything, including groceries. The main economic activity of this extraordinary town is solely tourism.
Nevertheless, the city is heavily touristic and in 2019, one million tourists visited this unique town to appreciate its timeless charm and glory. Every day, an average of 10,000 tourists visit this enchanting town. Tourism is by far the salvage element that this town needed. The town of Civita of Bagnoregio today has more guesthouses, cafes and restaurants that serve the influx of tourists than the residences that live in the dying town. Urban labour migration, the inevitable future and the lack of any possibility of building a life have forced its inhabitants to move and relocate, making the city inhabitable in all its aspects. Nevertheless, the Ministry and the Italian authorities have tried to put in place several incentives to get people to move to the city, including offering them the opportunity to get paid to live there. The authorities are currently focusing on the tourism aspect of the city. But what is worrying is that the city is fragile and unable to accommodate a large number of tourists. A few years ago, the city experienced soil erosion due to the 1 million tourists who came to the city. The emphasis is now on sustainable tourism.
The footbridge that connects the city to the greater part of the town recently was subjected to a toll-charge, the funds collected from which are allocated to the development of the city. Out of the countable residents left in the city, some of them hope that the town will survive owing to modern technological progress, but deep down they are also aware that they have to leave their town in an unlikely situation.
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