Formello

Formello is a municipality in the metropolitan city of Rome Capital, south-west of the Sabatini Mountains, within the Veio Regional Park. It was from Formello that, in Etruscan times, the aqueducts supplying the ancient city of Veii departed. Between the 7th and 6th centuries BC, in the southern area of the town, the Monte Aguzzo mound, an imposing Etruscan tomb, arose. Not far from the tomb, Cardinal Flavio Chigi had a large villa built in 1665, nicknamed the “Versaglia”, in imitation of the French palace of Versailles, now in ruins. Formello hosts the Civic Archaeological Museum of Agro Veientano, which collects materials dating from the 9th century BC. and the 15th century AD, including the magnificent bas-relief of the god Mithras from the excavations of Veii. The imposing church of San Lorenzo is impressive, with valuable frescoes and a large sundial on the floor from 1796. Continuing into the heart of the village you arrive at the church of San Michele Arcangelo, of medieval origin but with a sixteenth-century portal, which preserves other notable frescoes.