The famed medieval ghost town of Civita di Bagnoregio is looking to mules as its last link with the outside world.
Perched on a crumbling pile of soft tufa stone near Viterbo, the gracefully fading Civita is joined to its modern twin Bagnoregio by a slim concrete footbridge that has served it well for decades.
But now the subsidence that is eating into Civita - La Citta' Che Muore (The Dying City), the road signs call it - has started nibbling at the bridge too.
It's only a matter of time before the creaking cement goes the way of much of the former Etruscan settlement, tumbling down to the weird, lunar-like landscape far below, Mayor Erino Pompei says.
Civita has 20 permanent residents but tourists flock to visit the dramatic outcrop, with its dreamy churches, echoing alleys and Rapunzel towers.
So the bridge will eventually have to be replaced, the mayor says.
"We've posted an international tender on the Internet, inviting the world's best architects to come up with an innovative and eco-friendly solution to our problem," says Pompei, who has been mayor of the tiny town for 30 years.
In the meantime, however, more traditional solutions are in mind.
"We're thinking of dusting off some of the old mule tracks and ferrying visitors up on donkeys".
There is no shortage of such animals in the surrounding farmland, the mayor says.
One of the handful of celebrities who has managed to find a home in the romantic eyrie, filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore, might soon be seen on his very own donkey, echoing scenes from his acclaimed films.
The mules will also remind some of Civita's oldsters of the Fellini classic La Strada, much of which was shot in the town's streets.
"If it was good enough for St.Bonaventure, why shouldn't it be all right for today's folk?" asked one of the dozen villagers on hand for Pompei's announcement Wednesday.
One of Civita's many attractions, for such a tiny spot, is the birthplace of the 13th-century Franciscan theologian and Father of the Church.
His window gives out on one of the most daunting views of the plain - one of the reasons, Civitans say, that he soothed himself with meditation, earning the Latin tag Doctor Seraphicus.
