Rieti

Capital of the province only since 1927, with more than 40,000 inhabitants, this very old city is located at the margin of a large basin bordered to the west by the Sabini Mountains and to the east by the Reatini Mountains, which make up, at 403 meters high, the unique flat area of this mountainous and hilly province, immersed in a landscape of woods, lakes, and water with a well-conserved historic center.
Nearby is the "Terminillo" (2116 meters a.s.l.), one of the most major and best-equipped winter sports complexes in central Italy. There are also different small summer and winter holiday centers, numerous sanctuaries, and churches linked to the Franciscan vicissitudes, including that of Greccio, where the first Nativity Scene was made in 1223. Again in the vicinity, we find Cortila, thermal baths of Roman origin, the Nature Reserve of the Reatini Lakes, which is one of the most important protected "humid zones", and many other artistic, monumental, naturalistic, and gastronomic attractions.
Rieti even has sports centers of all kinds; in the historic center there are numerous pubs, American wine bars, and a multi-room cinema with five projection rooms. Both the city and its surroundings offer a wide variety of restaurants and trattorias where you can taste recipes of traditional local cuisine.
In addition, there are fairs, markets, important sporting events, festivals, and processions that make it a very interesting place even for spending long weekends, holidays, and weeks of vacation throughout the year.
The historic center
The historic center unfolds around a right angle which formed the two directions of the ancient Via Salaria (Salt Way): one direction arrived from Rome (from the south; today Via Roma), and the other led to Abruzzo (towards the east; today Via Garibaldi).
Along the east-west axis (Via Cinta - Via Garibaldi) the Roman city was situated; its forum (from which nothing remains) seems to have occupied the modern area of Piazza Vittorio Emanuele.
The central nucleus of the center, that which seems to have been the ancient Forum of the Roman settlement, is made up of two adjacent piazza, Vittorio Emanuele II and Cesare Battisti. Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II is dominated by the large Palazzo Comunale. Begun in the 13th century and continued in the 16th, it was finally completed in the 18th century with the realization of the façade, which was then partially modified in 1909 by architect, Cesare Bazzani, who also created the Council Hall. Today it is also home to the Civic Museum.
The Duomo and the Vescovado (Bishop's Palace)
The Duomo was constructed on the ancient S. Maria (6th cent.) beginning in 1109. In the inferior church, or crypt, the three small naves are supported by sixteen small travertine columns, each different and the last one on the right is a military column on which is an inscription of emperors Valente, Valentiniano, and Graziano. In the superior church of the original Romanesque building remain the Baptistry, bell tower, and median portal under the 15th-century portico; while the interior, with three naves and a chapel, is fruit of an 18th-century remodeling. The Baptistry is home to the Diocesan Museum. To the right side of the church and attached to the apse is Palazzo Vescovile (Bishop's Palace), a beautiful 13th-century building which looks over Via Cinta with a loggia on Gothic colonnade, which overlooks a large colonnade with cross vaults, called "Bishop's Vaults". From the elegant interior courtyard you reach the Bishop's Hall and Pope's Lounge. Both are concluded by a mighty overpass called "Bishop's Arch", which, constructed during the papacy of Bonifacio II, overpassed Via Cintia.

The "Navel" of Italy
In Piazza S. Rufo you find a tombstone which bears the writing "Center of Italy" in 20 different languages.
It's a curious supremacy, boasted by the city of Rieti, that it is the geometric center of the peninsula, which has ancient traditions. In fact, Plinio, in his "Historie Naturales" wrote: "Marco Varrone transmits down that the navel of Italy is found in the Reatino Countryside".
It seem that it was the Romans who identified the navel of Italy with a small lake a few kilometers from Rieti along Via Salaria, towards the Cotilia Thermal Baths. After various moves, more or less concurred which took place over centuries, the exact point was definitively fixed right in the middle of Piazza San Rufo, where, with a recent arrangement, on a support in form of a 2-diameter wide column, a two-colored marble inlaid work reproduces Italy with the famous "navel" at the center. The piazza is very pleasant; there are small restaurants and all kinds of bars all around it.