Fossil Forest of Dunarobba and Carsulae
Southern Umbria, Avigliano Umbro.The Fossil Forest of Dunarobba and Carsulae in the district of Avigliano Umbro stems from a natural phenomenon that allows us to admire, after millions of years, this open museum of fossilised tree trunks, exceptionally conserved in their original position.
We are speaking about colossal plants, very similar to the modern sequoia, buried in clay and broken off at 5-10 metres high, capable of reaching a diameter of more than 1.5 metres.
Monteluco lake
The fascination of Spoleto stems not only from its monuments, but above all from the relationship with the nature that surrounds it. The Monteluco not only acts as a scenographic backdrop, but as a protagonist in the story of the city, with its forest of ilex protected since ancient times. At the close of the 5th Century it was also a natural place of isolation for hermits, for meditation and prayer.It offers many excursions and long walks in a countryside suited to the exaltation of the sanctity of nature. Today Monteluco is considered an interesting natural and artistic heritage, enough to be inserted in the list of places observed by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.
From Todi follow the SP451 towards Spoleto.
Clitunno Springs
From Spoleto continue on the SS3, coming off at Campello.A veritable natural jewel of Umbria, A veritable natural jewel of Umbria, the Fountains of Clitunno for the impression that they evoke, are the ideal place to comprehend the crossover between religion and the environment.
Here springs of intense colour and luxurious vegetation create an environment of incomparable beauty. Dedicated to the God Clitunno, personification of the river where he spoke to his followers, already famous in the roman period and celebrated by Properzia, Plinio and Virgilio in their writings, this water has inspired in more recent times poets such as Byron and Giosuè Carducci, painters such as Corot and even today disgorges from cracks in the rock and gathers in a delightful pond.
The Oasis of Alviano
www.oasidialviano.it.From Todi follow the SP448 towards Orvieto, come off at Baschi and follow the SP205 towards Alviano. The Oasis of Alviano was created in 1978 on an area of 800 hectares and included in the Parco Fluviale del Tevere (the Tiber Fluvial Park).
From 1990 the WWF has managed a wildlife reserve, in a context rich from the point of view of vegetation both riverside and marshland. Inside the oasis you can bird watch from positions on the towers, platforms with well equipped huts. There is even an open classroom right in the middle of the swamp. The zone is humid and ideal for the passage and nesting of rare migratory and permanent birds, you can admire Kingfisher, heron, cormorants, seagulls, hawks and other birds.
The Marmore Waterfalls
From Todi follow the SS3 bis towards Terni-Rome, coming off at Terni, The Marmore Waterfalls are among the most remarkable and fascinating natural spectacles. It is a formidable work of Roman engineering made by the Roman Consul Manio Curio Dentato, who designed the drainage of the Velino swampland and had a canal excavated, called Cavo Curiano, at the point where today you find the main waterfall, channelling the still waters of the river. The Marmore Waterfalls are so called because of the incrustation of calcium crystals that give an appearance similar to marble (marmo). The waterfalls develop in three spectacular drops for a total of 165 metres (the highest in Europe), two equipped observations points allow visitors and tourists to observe the atmospheric and fascinating spectacle offered by the force of the water. A few kilometres from the Marmore Waterfalls, Lake Piediluco, set between green mountains is a tourist attraction not to be missed for its beauty. It is the second biggest lake in Umbria.Umbria underground
Todi undergroundThe Roman cistern in Piazza del Popolo, over 5 Km of underground passages and tunnels, more than 30 pre-Roman, Roman and medieval cisterns and 500 wells of varying ages form the rich underground heritage of the city. A flexible underground architectural system which completely covers the hillside, created over the centuries, knowledgably using the natural formation and characteristics of the land.
Perugia underground
Perugia below ground is accessible by means of mechanized paths through the structure of the Rocca Paolina, within the Rocca are the remains of the medieval quarter belonging to the Baglioni family. The fortress was built by Paolo III Farnese in 1540/43 based on a design by Antonio de Sangallo di Giovane. The powerful fortress was demolished in 1860 when it became part of the Kingdom of Italy. What remains today of this powerful structure is the medieval quarter with the old living areas, some streets, such as Via Bagliona, courtyards and squares, ovens, workshops and the 13th century house of Gentile Baglioni with its intact tower, and the retreat of Ridolfo and Braccio Baglioni.
5 kilometres to the south-east is the Hypogeum of the Volumni, a monumental tomb of the Etruscan Perugian family of the same name. The tomb, discovered in 1840, is one of the most important monuments of Etruria and is part of a much bigger necropolis known as Palazzone, which extends around the Hypogeum with numerous tombs and rooms from the archaic age (3rd and 1st century BC). The tomb is dated between the second half of the 2nd and the middle of the 1st century BC.
Orvieto underground
Orvieto underground is a labyrinth of caves dug out over a period of 3000 years from the rock on which the city is built. You can visit the Etruscan “Velzna”, medieval and Renaissance Orvieto in an extraordinary journey through time. A guided tour of Orvieto underground is therefore the best way to become acquainted with this new, particularly cultural aspect of a city rich in history and outstanding artistical treasures. Not to be missed, a visit to St Patrick’s Well designed by Antonio da Sangallo di Giovane. Commissioned by Pope Celement VII to supply water to the Albornoz fortress in the event of siege or or conflict, the well is 62 metres deep and within it there are two intertwined spiral stairwells to make the transportation of water easier.
La Scarzuola
La Scarzuola, Località Scarzuola, Montegabbione (Terni)Tel. +39 0763.837463
St Francis allegedly stayed here in a straw hut, returning from Perugia; on the spot where later Nerio di Bulgaruccio would stand a small church. In 1400 then the area was enlarged by building the Monastery lately known as Scarzuola, property of Franciscans till 1876.
The architect Tommaso Buzzi (1900 - 1981) bought the area surrounding the Scarzuola convent in 1956 and he planned and realized the Città Buzziana, rising near the convent, in twenty years' time.
The aim of his plan was to create a sort of "ideal city” where a blend between nature and culture could take place.
The result has been an architectural complex where symbolisms, allegories and any kind of citations are scattered throughout it and where there are many small and empty rooms that make it appear like a giant termitarium.
Tommaso Buzzi is considered one of the most interesting Italian designers of the XX century and he has been a subject of research during the last years.
He was a protagonist in Milan in the 20's and the 30's of the XX century.
He played an important role as the organizer of numerous manifestations and reviews about national and international applied arts.
He worked in the domain of furniture and planning. Fantasy and irreverence, together with the continuous use of humanistic, literary and classical quotations that distinguished his works, earned him the sympathies and the loyalty of the nobles and the high society, even though they probably prevented the architect from being renowned outside these environments.
In 1956, when he retired, he decided to buy the convent of the Scarzuola and to transform it into a sort of "autobiography on stone" of his career as an artist, as he himself states in his book "Lettere Pensieri Appunti 1937-1979" (Silvana, Milano 2000).
This is how he created this bridge between old and new, keeping the structure, the convent and adding his "ideal city" to it.
The Città Buzziana is an architectural composition inspired from neo-Mannerism as it can be inferred from the staircases that cross the complex and by the extension and the lack of proportion of its shapes, but also from the numerous statues that are present everywhere.
Guided tours all year around on reservation. Minimum group size 10 persons.
Lazio, Umbria border. Bomarzo (Viterbo)
www.bomarzo.netThe park of Monsters of Bomarzo was devised by the architect Pirro Ligorio (he completed the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Rome after the death of Michelangelo and built Villa d'Este in Tivoli) on commission of Prince Pier Francesco Orsini, called Vicino, only to vent the heart broken at the death of is wife Giulia Farnese. The park was born in 1552 as "Villa of Wonders" to be the only one of it's kind in the world. The Park of Monsters remained in oblivion till 1954 when it was bought by Mr Giovanni Bettini who with loving care has managed it. A visit to the park will unfold in a series of stages ranging between mythology and fantasy. We have individuated 24 works of art even though many more are contained in the park. The surreal nature of the Parco dei Mostri appealed to Jean Cocteau and the great surrealist Salvador Dalí, who discussed it at great length. The poet André Pieyre de Mandiargues wrote an essay devoted to Bomarzo. Niki de Saint Phalle was inspired by Bomarzo for her Tarot Garden.
Civita di Bagnoregio
Perched on top of a hill among some valleys Civita appears clinged to the edge of a cliff where it dominates the wide desolated valley made up of calanchi.This isolation is the result of a continuous erosion that makes the tufa rock becoming thinner and thinner on an unstable layer of clay and sand altered by wind and rain. But when the town was founded by the Etruscans about 2.500 years ago, because of the different geological configuration, it was not so hard to get to Civita.
During the Etruscan period, in fact, it was an important city for its position along an ancient road connected to a dense network of trade routes. Many traces of this population come from the necropolis found in the rock beneath the belvedere of San Francesco Vecchio. The cave of Saint Bonaventure, too, is supposed to be an Etruscan chamber tomb transformed into a chapel during the Middle Ages. Saint Bonaventure is one of the most important figures of Civita, who, it is said, was miraculously cured from a serious illness by St. Francis of Assisi.
From the few available ancient documents, we know that Civita and Bagnoregio were parts of the same city called Balneum Regis (the bath of the king). This name was given by a Lombard king, Desiderious, as his wounds were cured by the salutary waters of the hot springs present in the area. The relations between Civita and Orvieto were not always peaceful for the many unsolved matters of boundaries and they were the cause of frequent hostilities among the inhabitants of the two towns.
In 1695 the beginning of Civita's decay was signed by a terrible earthquake which, causing serious damages to the roads and buildings, compelled many inhabitants to leave the city. The continuous seismic activities that followed in the course of the centuries, brought a long series of landslides; for this reason, Civita almost became completely desolated. Today, in fact, only a very small number of people live there who are determined to keep this little fragment of rock alive. Today Civita is an enchanted place, where time seems to have stopped. The complete absence of cars makes the atmosphere inside Civita even more unreal.