Pleasantly situated but rather dull, RIETI is the capital of Lazio's largest province, occupying the plumb geographical centre of Italy – and with a plaque in Piazza di San Rufo to prove it. In the days of the Romans this was a key region, the so-called Umbilicus Italiae , and the Via Salaria or "Salt Road" traversing these parts formed an essential route for trading salt (extracted from the Tiber estuary) with the Sabines who lived up in these hills. But nowadays it's on its last legs, with the second-lowest population density in the country (after Aosta) and a drift from the land that's … more »