The Roman bridge

Once upon a time...

After the little Montedoglio dam collapse, more than one year ago,...

...the Tiber river has dug up the suggestive ruins of a Roman bridge.
It was part of Ariminensis, the Roman road between Arezzo - in Tuscany - and Rimini, in Romagna, on the Adriatic Sea.

The bridge and the river get back together again... It seems like a beautiful love story!

White Umbria

Normally it's green, but now...

The "Green hearth of Italy" is how we call Umbria, a region in Central Italy, but in the last days it has changed its colour.

This is a view of High Tiber Valley in these days, with the big Montedoglio Dam.

Here we are on Alpe di Catenaia (m 1414), on the border between Umbria and Tuscany.

Here we are, with snow shoes, on the other side of the Valley, between Umbria and Marche.

And here, toward Bocca Trabaria, a common experience in our woods: two fallow deers

Remainders of the past

Around Faggeto Tomb

Passing below the fairytale Antognolla Castle,

you can start your walk not far from the mountainside of Mount Acuto.

After few minutes you can arrive at the ruins of Gualterotta Castle.

The ancient gate will welcome you between the high tower and the remains of the big main building.

On the tower facade you can see two entrances: the principal one is the upper, where you can arrived by a footbridge; the lower was used only to take materials up with a rope or a basket.

Come back to the main path, after Bisciaro Castle

end the view of Mount Tezio - the Perugia mountain -

you'll walk inside a wood. Few minutes on a steep lane and then, suddenly, a door... a big stone door.

It's Faggeto Tomb, an Etruscan tomb from II BC.
It's incredible! You can open it with a finger!

It's simply beautiful. It's simply Umbria, in Italy.

The Town of Sun

Like a new Babel tower

In the middle of Renaissance, one of the most important family of Florence, wishing have a holiday home, decided to built a... whole town up this mountain.

The family was the famous Medici of Florence, represented by Cosimo de' Medici, and the mountain is Sasso Simone (or "of Simone"), about 1200 m high. It's located between Marche and Tuscany, were arrived (yes! it "walked" :-) ) 15 million years ago from the Tyrrhenian Sea.
In the flat top of it Cosimo de' Medici founded this new town named "Città del Sole" (Town of Sun) and this was its coat of arms.

  There was all you nead in a town but the inhabitants. It survived only one century, from 1566 (the first stone) to 1673. The reason? You'll don't believe it... it was too cold. We was in the age of little glaciation (XVI-XVIII centuries).

The one on the left is "Simoncello".

Going up and walking on the original road...

Simoncello from Sasso Simone