Not many are familiar with the name Norba, and the history behind it. Once upon a time, Norba was a flourishing, wealthy Latin town, some 30 miles south of Rome, perched on the Lepini Mountains. Its origins, much like those of its larger neighbor, were steeped in myth: according to some, it was founded by the Cyclopes, giants with a single eye of Homeric memory, who built the polygonal defensive walls that surrounded it.

These majestic limestone blocks managed to survive wars and earthquakes and stood well into the modern era when, during the times of malaria, valley people would seek refuge high up in the hills, often within the old walls of Norba. Another legend says it was Hercules who founded it and another still associates its creation to Aeneas and his people, who had traveled to Latium after the fall of Troy.