Greccio is an old hilltown and comune of the province of Rieti in the Italian region of Lazio, overhanging the Rieti valley on a spur of the Monti Sabini, a sub-range of the Apennines.

Greccio was founded, according to tradition, by a Greek colony or family, who fled or exiled from their homeland following wars and destruction who fell in love with the amenity of the place and the comfort of natural defense it offered, and settled there. Hence the name Greece, Grece, Grecce and finally Greccio. The first certain information dates back to the 10-11th century. when the fragmentary possessions of the Abbey of Farfa were reunited and the fortification of the curtis proceeded. The Benedictine monk Gregorio da Catino (1062-1133) refers to the locality of Greccio (curte de Greccia) in his work “Regesto Farfense”.