Incantato welcomes you to Rieti: the belly button of Italy

Rieti is a wonderful city to explore the history of Italy, from the Ancient times until the present. It has remarkable monuments and remains from all ages, especially the Middle Ages, as you will also see in some other Italian cities. But what you will not find in other cities – including Rome – is the traditional center of Italy! Even if it is not geographically exact, Rieti has always been known as the Italian belly button – the Umbilicus Italiae since the times of the ancient Romans.

After the Roman domination in the late 3rd Century BC, the village of Rieti already became a strategic point in the Italian road network, dominating the “salt way” (Vía Salaria) that still runs all the way to Rome. During those times, Via Salaria had linked Rome to the Adriatic Sea through the Apennine Mountains. At the time, Rieti could be found in the writings of Virgil and Pliny the Elder, described as the center of the Italian peninsula. 

According to the ancient historians di Alicarnasso and Varrone, Lake Paterno used to lie where Rieti is now. The lake had an island in the middle, which they referred to as the belly button of Italy. The two small lakes you see today (Laghi Reatini) are what is left after the Romans made a cut on a hill near Marmore. The cut created the tallest Italian waterfall, called Cascata delle Marmore.

During the Middle Ages, Rieti kept the title of Italian Umbilicus, as they believed that the distance from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian Sea was 104 Italian miles, and Rieti was the center between them. As it was also the exact center between Augusta Praetorio (today’s Aosta) and Cabo dell’Armi (in Calabria), whose distance was 620 miles. Rieti was an important gastaldate during the Lombard domination, a country capital during the times of the Franks, a favorite Papal seat, and a provincial capital, but it has never lost the title of Italian Center.

In the 19th Century, a granite stone was situated in the middle of the Piazza San Rufo, which has been called the center of Italy since then: Piazza San Rufo Centro d’Italia. Some years later, the granite stone was substituted by another stone on which you could read: Medium Totius Italiae. But this inscribed stone was stolen! So on March 29th, 1950, a plaque with the words “Center of Italy” in 20 different languages was placed in the Piazza San Rufo Centro d'Italia.

In the year 2001, the city received as a present a monument nicknamed the “Caciotta”, which you will be able to see in your first days in Rieti, belly button of Italy. Even today, it is still called the Umbilicus Italiae. They even have a facebook group! By the way, Cacciota is a young, mild and small artisan cheese from the center of Italy – specially from Tuscany – which can be found in different varieties: saffron, garlic, mustard… yummy!