Piazza Augusto Baccelli is the square that the Municipality itself describes as the “heart of San Vito Romano”. Shaded by large trees and paved with cobblestones, it revolves around its fountain, which the locals simply call the “Tre Fontane” (Three Fountains): for everyone it is the meeting place par excellence, where people arrange to meet and where, as the community puts it, “many people run into each other”.
The fountain
At the centre of the fountain rises a stone statue: a female figure resting on a large fish whose mouth pours water into the basin below. All around, the benches in the shade of the trees invite you to stop for a while.
Cardinal Theodoli’s inscription
At the corner of the square there is an inscription, topped by the Theodoli coat of arms, recalling the work with which Cardinal Mario Theodoli transformed the town in the 17th century, opening the straight road of Borgo Mario Theodoli that climbs through the town from here:
“Cardinal Marius Theodulus levelled the ruggedness of the mountains, opened the roads, turned the demolished hills into buildings and raised a temple to the Saint who vanquished the plague, in the year of Our Lord 1649.”
The “temple” is the church of Saints Sebastian and Roch, which you come to as you walk up the Borgo. To find out more, read “The hilltop settlement and the shape of the village” in the History section.
The feast of San Vito
The square is also the heart of the town’s festivals. During the celebrations for San Vito, the patron saint celebrated in mid-June, at the end of the procession everyone returns to Piazza Augusto Baccelli for food and wine tastings and music. In past decades, it was above all the traditional tombola and the fireworks display that brought the square to life.
The name
The square is dedicated to Augusto Baccelli (Rome, 1832-1906), a deputy and later a senator of the Kingdom of Italy, a member of the Baccelli family whose ties to San Vito Romano are told in the History section.
Two of the site’s walking routes also start here, Trail A (San Biagio) and Trail B (Olevano), which climb towards the old town along Borgo Mario Theodoli (Trails section).
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Sources: Municipality of San Vito Romano; Augusto Baccelli - Wikipedia.