Its frazione of Torre Alfina is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy").

[3] The area of modern Acquapendente was settled by Etruscans in Roman times, as archaeological finds have shown.

[4] However, the first historical document of the modern city dates from the 9th century AD, with a town named Farisa or Arisa along the Via Francigena.

A document from Emperor Otto I, dated 964, contains the first recorded use of the name Acquapendentem which means "hanging water", from several small waterfalls in the Paglia river on the boundary between Lazio and Tuscany.

[9] No longer a residential bishopric, Aquipendium, as it is called in Latin, is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.