What is Amelia known for?

Pre-Roman cyclopean walls of the fourth to third centuries BC, more than 2 km of limestone blocks ringing the historic core. Ten parallel barrel-vaulted chambers under Piazza Matteotti, the Roman municipium's water infrastructure intact. Chamber-music festival founded in 1968, each summer programmed around a different country's repertoire.

Amelia is a comune in the province of Terni, Umbria region of Italy, about 27 kilometers from Terni.

Umbria · Terni

Amelia

A pre-Roman hilltownringed by polygonal walls of the fourth century BC, with ten barrel-vaulted Roman cisterns under the main square.

27 km / 17 mi

Nearest hub (Terni)

11,547

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Cittaslow

Why come

Amelia sitson a hill between the Tiber and the Nera, sixty kilometers south of Perugia and close to the Lazio border. The defining structure is older than Rome: a ring of polygonal walls more than two kilometers long, up to six meters high, built from massive limestone blocks in the fourth and third centuries BC. They predate the Roman conquest. When Amelia became a municipium under Rome, new infrastructure followed: walls, terraces, roads, and a system of ten parallel barrel-vaulted cisterns 57.5 meters long by 19.6 meters wide, averaging 5.7 meters in height, hidden under what is now Piazza Matteotti. The Statue of Germanicus, a bronze cuirassed general over two meters tall, was unearthed outside the Porta Romana in 1963 and now sits in the town's archaeological museum. Amelia joined the Cittaslow network in 2004 and the Festival delle Nazioni, the chamber-music festival founded in 1968, programs each summer around a different country's repertoire.

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Gallery

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Known for

Mura poligonali
Pre-Roman walls of the fourth to third centuries BC, more than 2 km long, up to 6 meters high, in massive limestone blocks.
Cisterne romane
Ten barrel-vaulted chambers under Piazza Matteotti, 57.5 by 19.6 meters, built when Amelia became a Roman municipium.
Duomo di Santa Firmina
Cathedral re-dedicated to Saint Firmina around 872 under Pope Adrian II, at the upper end of the centro storico.
Porta Romana
Main gate on the old Via Amerina, present form modified in the sixteenth century in travertine.
Museo Archeologico
Houses the bronze Statue of Germanicus, over 2.15 meters tall, unearthed just outside Porta Romana in 1963.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September into October are the working months: dry air, light on the polygonal walls, evenings on the Cittaslow corso. The Festival delle Nazioni runs late August into early September and draws audiences from Rome and beyond. July and August reach the mid-thirties; at 406 meters the centro storico breathes better than the Terni basin but afternoons still empty. The cisterns under Piazza Matteotti, opened on guided tours, stay at a constant cool. November through March is quiet. Many trattorie shorten hours. Winter mist lifts off the Tiber valley below and leaves only the upper walls visible from the Belvedere.