Lazio · Frosinone
Arpino
The Volscian-Roman hill town in the Liri valley that produced Marius and Cicero, with a pre-Roman acropolis above the modern center.
Known for
CICERO
Marcus Tullius Cicero was born in 106 BC in a villa just below the town, on the Liri river bend now part of Isola del Liri.
MARIUS
Gaius Marius, seven-time consul and military reformer of the late Roman Republic, was born in the territory of Arpinum in 157 BC.
CYCLOPEAN WALLS
Polygonal pre-Roman walls of the acropolis above the town, with a pointed-arch gate that is the only known ogival arch of its date in central Italy.
When to visit
Best · Apr–Oct
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
The festa: Madonna di Loreto, 10 December
Why come
Arpino sits on two hills in the Liri valley, in the Ciociaria region of southern Lazio. The ancient city of Arpinum, on the upper hill now called Civitavecchia, was a Volscian-Samnite stronghold captured by Rome in 305 BC. The lower hill is the medieval and modern town.
Two Roman consuls were born here: Gaius Marius, the military reformer who fought the Cimbri and Teutones, and Marcus Tullius Cicero, the orator and senator killed in 43 BC. The villa where Cicero was born stood just north, on the Liri, in what is now Isola del Liri. The upper acropolis is ringed by polygonal cyclopean walls of the sixth or fifth century BC, with the Arco a Sesto Acuto, a pointed-arch gate cut into the same stone work. Arpino is on the Bandiere Arancioni list and on the Cammino di San Benedetto, the long pilgrim route from Norcia to Montecassino.
The Sunday letter
We haven’t written Arpino’s letter yet.
One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.
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What to see
Acropoli di Civitavecchia
Pre-Roman upper city on the hill above modern Arpino, surrounded by cyclopean polygonal walls of the sixth or fifth century BC.
Arco a Sesto Acuto
Pointed-arch gate cut into the cyclopean walls of the acropolis, the only known pre-Roman ogival arch in central Italy.
Torre di Cicerone
Medieval tower on the acropolis, traditionally linked to Cicero by local memory though built more than a thousand years after his death.
Piazza Municipio
Main square of the lower town with the nineteenth-century bronze statue of Cicero, the Palazzo Boncompagni, and a Romanesque-Gothic church.
Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo
Concattedrale of the diocese of Sora-Cassino-Aquino-Pontecorvo, on the site of an earlier Roman temple, restructured in the seventeenth century.
The slow-trip planner
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We recommend
Where to eat and stay
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to — a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
Living here
- Population 6,684
- In-betweeni
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Train station in the comune
- Nearest airport Naples / Salerno, 1 h 50 min drive
- Regional capital Roma, 1 h 46 min drive
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources
Recognised as
The numbers
- Elevation: 450 m
- Population: 6,684
- Surface area: 56.24 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
Close by
More towns near Arpino
Isola del Liri
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The Ciociaria town with a 27-meter waterfall in its centro storico and a paper-mill past once called the Manchester of Italy.
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Atina
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🟠 Bandiera Arancione
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Bomarzo
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The Tuscia village below the Sacro Bosco, the 16th-century stone-monster garden built by a grieving condottiero for his dead wife.
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A Cimini hill town above Lago di Vico, dominated by the pentagonal Villa Farnese that Vignola built for the Farnese cardinals between 1559 and 1573.