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Latera attractions
Latera attractions
There are a lot of interesting buildings in Latera. The main is the big structure composed by the church, the belltower and the castle. They are united in a nice complex of medieval origin, situated at the top of the main hill where the town has been built, dominating the ancient walls and the old surrounding houses.
The San Clemente church, dating back about 1598, replaces and older medieval church and it has been restored several times. If opened, it's a worth a visit inside. The small square outside forms a semicircular shape with medieval houses and an arch of entrance. Outside the arch there's a little but tall bridge.
The belltower, with a nice clock on its northern side, dominates the whole old town and it's a landmark of Latera.
On the back of the church there are the remains of the old castle of Farnese dinasty: unfortunately the interior is in ruin but it's anyway interesting outside. Another arc connects Farnese Palace to Latera's Comune (town hall): you won't notice it if you don't look at it carefully, because it's only a small door: the main things of town hall are inside, because the ceilings and the roofs are original of centuries ago. The interior of town hall is composed by offices so it's not opened to public to visit them, but you can even ask to watch them to some officers (maybe you won't be satisfied by them, but an attempt it's not a trouble).
Outside the western side of Farnese Palace there's a little but very nice square, Piazza della Rocca ("Rock's Square"), a rectangural shaped place with some trees: recently restored and re-paved, it's a very pleasant place for the stunning views that offers. Piazza della Rocca has been historically built over the top of Latera's walls, and the little stone at the edge wall faces a 20 metres tall slide, overlooking great part of the old town with its charateristic roofs and, in clear days, the valley and the far Valentano town.
Walking down the medieval walls it's a good experience, you'll be able to visit great part of the old town: the main and best preserved are in the western side of the town, in "Via delle Mura" (Walls' Street). Anyway the most interesting part is in a narrow and hidden street just after the Farnese Palace, which contains a combination of archs (I quattr'archi, "The Four Arches") with a little "Our Lady".
One of the landmarks of Latera is its fountains' cultural heritage. There are 4 historical fountains in the town, each one situated in an angle of the old town. Their position has contribute to associate them to four historical districts of Latera: the southern is "Ducal Fountain" (Fontana Ducale) but it's bettern known as Ponte ("Bridge"); the western is Canale ("Channel"), a nice big fountain situated in a wooded ditch just outside the town; the eastern is Piscero (historically Viscero); and northern, today no more existing despite replaced by a new version on a public park, Trinchieri.
Latera hosts a curious museum, the Museo della Terra ("Country Museum"). Located in an old granary built by some monks come from Mount Amiata, the exposition is made up of a private collection which includes tools and memories of the borough of Latera. Inside the building there are contained the tools used by the peasants to work in the fields and those of the craftsmen of the shops of the town, along with objects related to the religious and social life and children games. Some tools date back to XIX century. You can learn more at the . The Museum is opened:
Summer:
Thursday 9-12
Tuesday 17-20
Saturday 9-13, 17-19
Sunday 9-13, 17-19
Winter:
Saturday 10-13, 15-18
Sunday 10-13
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Latera Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.