By car:
From the north
Motorway A1 Firenze-Roma, leave it at Ponzano Soratte and follow the indications for Tarano.
From the SS 44 (Salaria): take direction Roma, at the traffic lights of Passo Corese turn right to the SS 313 (Ternana) and drive straight on for about thirty kilometres.

From the south
Motorway A1 Napoli-Roma. At S. Cesareo take the diversion to the motorway A1 Firenze-Roma, direction Roma. Having arrived to the Roma-Nord toll, follow the motorway A1, direction Firenze and leave it at Ponzano Soratte.

By train:
Tarano is easy to reach by train from Rome and Orte with the train line FIUMICINO AEROPORTO-ROMA-ORTE. The nearest station to Tarano is GAVIGNANO. The blue-coloured COTRAL-buses link Gavignano with Tarano.

For further information:
Servizio FS informa tel. (892021)
http://www.trenitalia.it

Tarano is clearly a medieval village, still surrounded by its original town walls and wonderfully preserved from the architectonical point of view. Set in the heart of Sabina, at the altitude of 324 m above sea level, Tarano boasts of its original position: it stands on a tufaceous hill that rises in the middle of a valley, as if it had been laid there from above. The entrance to the village is still today marked by an arch that gives to Piazza Marconi. The main street leads to the Parish Church of Santa Maria Assunta, a perfect example of the late-medieval architecture, which is also one of the prides of the village and therefore among its major attractions. Currently the old town centre is mostly a residential area, composed of well-kept buildings with Reneissance portals and charming gardens.

The name Tarano probably indicates a place located in a meeting of two watercourses and its first data dates from 952, when "castrum" was mentioned in the "Regesto Farfense" starting from the 10th century.
It passed under the possession of the Abbey only in 1027 due to a donation.
Used to be property of the Apostolic House and at the end of the 14th century it was chosen as the summer residence of the popes.
In the 15th century it passed to the Savelli, then back to the church, to the Orsini, again to the Savelli until it returned to the Holy See in the 18th century.

Parish Church of Santa Maria Assunta
A late-Romanesque building with a fragment of a roman sculpture portraying a satyr and a nymph on the façade. The bell tower dates back to 1114, while traces of frescos dating from the 14th and 15th centuries together with a 15th century Pietà in painted terracotta, are preserved inside.

S. Francesco's church
Only charming ruins remain of the church built in the 13th century together with annexed monastery.

S. Pietro's church
Located in the hamlet of S. Polo this church preserves a beautiful canvas dating from the 16th century, representing the Saint to whom the building is consecrated. In the same hamlet there is also a beautiful fountain and Church of Santa Barbara with votive 16th century frescos. Sanctuary of Madonna della Noce, where the celebrations to honour Santa Barbara are held, is also located nearby.

Santo Polo
This small medieval village, set on the slope of a hill, is a small hamlet of Tarano and was ruled by the Orsini for a long time, passing then under the dominion of the Holy See. Worth visiting both the church of S. Paolo and that of S. Barnaba with beautiful tempera paintings preserved inside them.

Forum Novum (Torri in Sabina)
The ruins of the ancient roman municipality of Forum Novum stand in the area of Torri, precisely in Vescovio. It is not clear how this roman living area became a municipality (it seems though it obtained the status of a municipality in augustan period) nor which were the political and institutional structures of Forum Novum, but the diggings carried out a few decades ago have unearthed a large part of the public living area: the forum, the basilica, some shops, a temple, arches of an aqueduct and some funeral monuments. The remains of Castrum Domini Episcopi can be admired on the above rising hill. This building was abandoned and restored several times in the Middle Ages, last time towards the end of the eighteenth century, just before it was transformed into an Augustinian convent.

Sanctuary of Vescovio
The church of S. Maria della Lode in Vescovio rises isolated among the pines and cypresses in a level countryside with scattered roman ruins, only a few kilometres from Casperia, in the territory of Torri in Sabina. According to a tradition S. Pietro had been a guest of gens Ursacia and the church that acted as the Cathedral of Sabina until the fifteenth century, was built on the ruins of their house. The portal surmounted by a prothyrum and adorned with an inscription in lapidary capital letters (Ecclesia Cathedralis Sabinorum), is the entrance to a small courtyard in front of the façade of the building. The façade is flanked by the Bell tower, which podium dates back to the eleventh century a.C., while the four floors with windows with one light and those with three lights go back to the twelveth century.
The building has the form of a Latin cross, with only one nave, and was reconstructed in the eleventh century, but the oldest part of the church, besides the apse and transept, is the Crypt. This rare example of a crypt with a semi circular design, indeed dates back to the ninth century.

Two village festivals are held in this town: the first is a festival of broad beans and sheep's milk cheese in May and the second is of chestnuts and "frappe". The latter ones are typical sweets of the carnival time and are made of water, meal, sugar and aromas, then fried and sprinkled with honey or sugar.
Other gastronomic specialties are spring lamb with tomatoes, rabbit cacciatore and fried rabbit, various pickled vegetables and homemade fettuccine with meat sauce.

Le Fattorie Caracciolo
loc. Colle Campana
tel. 0765-607731

Agriturismo Le Fattorie Caracciolo
loc. Colle Campana
tel. 0765-607731