In this issue of Avion Tourism Magazine we take you on a journey into the heart of Lazio, among its treasures recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It is an itinerary that crosses thousand-year-old cities, water gardens, ancient woods and living traditions, where art, faith and nature come together in a single narrative: that of a land that does not limit itself to preserving history, but transforms it into experience.

The Historic Center of Rome, with the Vatican City and the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, represents the universal soul of the region. Walking through the Imperial Forums, the Colosseum and the domes that draw the horizon means walking through two thousand years of civilization, breathing the same atmosphere that inspired emperors, artists and saints. Every stone, every monument or architecture of the large historic center seems to hold a fragment of eternity.

A few kilometers from the capital, Tivoli offers two wonders that dialogue with each other through the centuries: Hadrian's Villa, an architectural vision of an emperor in love with the beauty of the world, and Villa d'Este, a triumph of the Renaissance, where water becomes music and fountains dance in a theater of light and harmony.

To the north, the Etruscan Necropolis of Cerveteri and Tarquinia reveals the oldest root in Lazio. In the burial chambers dug into the tuff, frescoes of banquets, dances and sounds restore the life of a people who loved to celebrate the joy of existence. Places that smell of mystery and invite silence, as in an intimate dialogue with memory.

And then there is the Appian Way, the Regina Viarum, which stretches southwards from Rome like a timeline engraved in stone. An ancient consular road and today a journey of humanity, the Appian Way tells the story of the journey as a universal gesture: from those who set out to conquer it to those who, today, travel it in search of themselves.

In the green heart of the region, the beech forest of Monte Raschio di Oriolo Romano and the ancient beech forest of the Cimini Mountains guard the primordial soul of nature. Centuries-old woods where the light filters through as in a cathedral and every step resonates anciently, reminding man of his fragile greatness.

But the heritage of Lazio does not live only in places: it lives in gestures, sounds, rituals. It is the Intangible Heritage that lights up the villages and renews the roots of a people. In Arpino, the Race with the Cannata has been celebrating female strength, grace and pride for centuries in an ancient challenge that animates the streets of the village. In Viterbo, the Transport of the Santa Rosa Machine lights up the night with a tower of light carried on the shoulders of a hundred men, a symbol of faith and shared devotion. And then the Transhumance, the slow passage of flocks between mountains and plains, an echo of a pastoral knowledge that still today draws the landscape and tells the most authentic link between man and nature.

Finally, the Circeo National Park is listed as a World Heritage Site and the Biosphere, where myth and reality embrace. Here, among golden dunes, sea and forests, hovers the legend of Circe, the sorceress who transformed men into animals. It is a place that preserves the primordial enchantment of the Mediterranean, where Lazio shows its wildest and most poetic face, continuing to enchant.

Have a good trip with Avion Tourism Magazine!  
Angela Trivigno