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The Sabine Hills , south of Rieti, are an altogether softer option than the mountains to the east. For an area so close to Rome this sees only a trickle of tourism - partly because there are no big sights and partly because it's difficult to get around in what is essentially a landscape of small villages and secondary roads. If you decide to bother with the region it'll be for the scenery, the best of which is east of the Via Salaria around Lago del Turano and Lago del Salto , where the village of ROCCA SINIBALDA provides a focus - though it's really no more than a fortified castle, surrounded by high wooded hills. Northeast of here, a great swath of desolate country centres around Monte Nuria (1888m) and Monte Moro (1524m) - walking and backpacking territory mostly, with the small Lago Rascino providing a wild and unspoilt destination, especially good for camping. On the other side of the Via Salaria, many of the villages have been doubly destroyed, first in the Fifties by people emigrating to Rome, and then more recently - and ironically - by richer Romans returning to buy up holiday homes. The villages still look much as they always did - small self-contained nuclei on the tops of low hills - and varying degrees of medieval character are about all they've got going for them, though the rolling countryside between is moderately pretty. One undoubted highlight in a lacklustre area is the old Benedictine abbey at FARFA , situated in fine olive-covered countryside 6km from the village of Faro. Getting there by bus is difficult as connections are required, but the Rieti tourist office will be able to advise on the latest schedules. Founded in the fifth century and endowed by Charlemagne, it was one of the single most powerful abbeys in Europe for a while, with a huge economic base, a merchant fleet, even its own army, and rights to Aquila, Molise, Viterbo, Spoleto, Tarquinia and Civitavecchia - central Italy in effect. By the end of the Middle Ages, however, it was in decline, and most of its early medieval splendour has since been submerged under fifteenth- and sixteenth-century additions. The Abbey Church (summer Tues-Sat 9.30am-1pm & 4.30-7pm, Sun 10am-1pm & 4-7pm; winter daily 3.30-6pm; L5000/?2.58) is stacked with various treasures, including parts of the Carolingian pavement, the sculptural relief forming the pulpit base and a few eleventh-century frescoes in the belltower, but the museum (closed for restoration) is the main focus, collecting together parts of the abbey's heritage as well as local archeological fragments. Most fascinating is the Cures Pillar , a sixth-century BC Sabine inscription found in a local riverbed in 1982. It's the only example known, and, still undeciphered, it remains an emblem for studies of the previously ignored Sabine culture.
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