Rieti

Rieti stands on a hill at the edge of the broad Velino plain, beneath the mountains of the Sabine country. Ancient Reate was an important Sabine centre on the Via Salaria. Roman works diverted the Velino toward the Nera, draining part of the old lake and creating the falls of Marmore.

In the Middle Ages Rieti became a free commune and a favoured residence of the popes. Its independence as a commune dates from 1198, after the town had been rebuilt with Roman assistance. Pope Gregory IX canonized Saint Dominic here in 1234. Among the city's later inhabitants was Moses ben Isaac of Rieti, a Jewish physician and scholar born in 1388. His poem, known as the Mikdash Me'at, preserves a rich account of learning and literary figures in his time.