rieti
 
Pleasantly situated but rather dull, RIETI is capital of Lazio's largest province, occupying the plumb geographical centre of Italy - and with a plaque in Piazza di San Rufo to prove it. In the days of the Romans this was a key region, the so-called Umbilicus Italiae , and the Via Salaria or "Salt Road" traversing these parts formed an essential route for trading salt (extracted from the Tiber estuary) with the Sabines who lived up in these hills. But nowadays it's on its last legs, with the second lowest population density in the country (after Aosta) and a drift from the land that's more often associated with the south. Three-quarters of the rural population has moved from the countryside since 1950, most of them to Rome, and it doesn't look like changing: poor communications have deterred any sort of industrial initiative - something that is to the visitors' if not the locals' advantage, leaving Rieti's mountain-ringed plain almost entirely unscarred by factories or housing.

The Town
Rieti is really just somewhere to while away an hour waiting for a bus, unless you want to use it is a base for walks in the area . Despite the tourist office's artful pictures of medieval walls and arches, the only traces of the medieval town you'll find are the Duomo and the Palazzo Vescovile off the main street and a short stretch of twelfth-century wall to the north of the centre. For those planning serious walking or camping trips, it's worth visiting the main tourist office at Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II (Mon-Sat 9.30am-1pm & 4-6pm; tel 0746.201.146, www.apt.rieti.it ), who have maps of the town and, more importantly, detailed routes for high-level walks around Terminillo . With their help you also shouldn't have problems planning a tour of the four Franciscan monasteries around Rieti, all connected one way or another with important episodes in the saint's life. They're all scenic enough, though without an abiding interest in St Francis you may not find them terribly exciting. The most famous is at GRECCIO , where Francis created the first ever Christmas crib, a real-life nativity scene complete with cows, for the benefit of locals; this is re-enacted every year on December 24, December 26 and at Epiphany on January 6.