THE LOCATION OF ITALY’S true geographic center has obsessed writers since Roman times. Marcus Terrentius Varro (who was born in Rieti, then known as Reatae) claimed that his home region was Italy’s ombelicus (navel).

Initially, the site was believed to be the nearby Lake of Paterno, sacred to the ancient Sabine people, which Pliny also cites in his Natural History: “in the region of Rieti, the lake of Cotilia [another name for the same lake], where an island floats, is the centre of Italy, as Varro states.”