What is Arpino known for?

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. Gaius Marius, seven-time consul and military reformer of the late Roman Republic, was born in the territory of Arpinum in 157 BC. 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.

Arpino is a comune in the province of Frosinone, Lazio region of Italy, about 88 kilometers from Latina.

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.

88 km / 55 mi

Nearest hub (Latina)

6,684

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Arpino sitson 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.

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Gallery

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Known for

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.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September through October are the strong months. Spring brings green hills along the Liri and clear views from the acropolis; autumn is dry and gold. July and August push past thirty degrees in the valley, although Arpino's 450-meter position offers some relief in the upper town. November through March is quiet. The Gonfalone di Arpino in September is a historical re-enactment with crossbow tournament, a tradition since 1985 that turns the medieval lower town into competing rioni for a weekend.