Stage 27.A: Pratolungo - Farfa

The variant to the Farfa Abbey, running on long stretches of secondary road among olive groves, crosses the medieval villages of Toffia and Fara in Sabina, and then continues up to Poggio Moiano with a significant climb.

This pleasant detour allows us to discover one of the most important Benedictine places of worship in Italy, the Abbey of Farfa.

After crossing La Piana, we arrive on the slopes of Monte Calvo, in Vocabolo Pratolungo. Here the route forks, leading southward up to Santo Paolo Alto and Ponticelli, and northward to Farfa. The itinerary also touches Osteria Nuova, where we can admire the Church and the Grotta dei Massacci, a second century monumental tomb incorporated into a farmhouse.

Thanks to this long variant, we will be able to visit the gorgeous Benedictine Abbey of Farfa, declared a national monument in 1928 for its architectural and artistic beauty. The Basilica preserves a wall oil painting of the Last Judgement by the Dutch artist Henrik van der Broek on the back side and, on the ceiling over the transept and in the choir, grotesque decorations from the Zuccari School.

The Church also boasts, in the left chapels, three works by Orazio Gentileschi: “Sant’ Ursula”, “The Madonna with Child” and “The Crucifixion of St. Peter”, and that which had probably been the first painting by his daughter, Artemisia Gentileschi. Worth a visit is also the pretty village of Farfa, with its beautiful ancient workshops.