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Spare Time Sport Tours

Valnerina, praised all over the world as Terra dei Santi (The Land of Saints), it is known also for outdoor adventures and fun. Numerous activities unfold among waterfalls, cliffs and paths through which you can discover the charm of a wild nature that is reflected in the clear water of an indomitable river, the Nera, a name that in its oldest form really means “strong”.

Rafting

Adrenaline descents between the waves: rafting and hydrospeed

The most famous water sport that allows you to sail the Nera is undoubtedly rafting, a particularly dynamic and adventurous way to travel the river aboard colorful rafts. A sport to be experienced, very successful among the youngest. There are many itineraries to choose: from the more adrenaline – fueled ones that run alongside the water of the Marmore Falls – where the river is more bubbly – to the more peaceful ones suitable also for the little ones, but which nevertheless reserve strong emotions. Particular mention deserves the hydrospeed, a river descent clinging to a sort of life preserver in the points where the water flows faster and the rapids are wilder. A faster and more exciting solution for those who want to be protagonists on the river. An adventure to share with a rather unusual travel companion: the Nera. The force of nature, the spirit of adventure, the adrenaline that rises in a whirlwind of emotions that will make you go home changed by this new experience.

Rock balconies: sport climbing

Rock, water, earth: these are the three elements that merge together in this corner of Umbria, shaping rocks, the landscape and nature that are the protagonists of this land. A mountain with a unique and unrepeatable landscape, which offers views of bright beauty from the Ferentillo cliff. A landscape shaped by man, who has been able to preserve the authentic nature of this place; it offers the better a free climber could wish for. Look at the rising wall, follow its lines, the protrusions and then feel the rock under your hands. Climbing keeps in contact with the mountain, a feat no longer reserved for a few athletes, but something that enjoys increasing popularity, for the desire to challenge one’s strength, to be able to observe the altitudes from a rock balcony that offers a totalizing natural experience.

 

climbing

Climbing

Discover the old Spoleto-Norcia railway by mountain bike

Valnerina is a land forged by Mother Nature to be discovered by bike. In this corner of Umbria, between the limpid blue of the River Nera and the skyline of medieval villages and towers, a pedestrian and cycle path develops for over 30 km along the old railway that once connected Spoleto to Norcia. A greenway in the wildest heart of Umbria that runs through places where landscape and cultural contrasts keep tradition alive and accompany bikers on an itinerary with a thousand faces. There are many opportunities to experience interesting encounters: it is quite easy, in fact, to see numerous species of diurnal birds of prey that soar in flight from the majestic rocky folds that frame the path. The most common are the kestrel and the buzzard, or even a pair of golden eagles which has its nest in one of the gorges crossed by the old railway. While rafting enthusiasts glide on the water of the Nera, those who go trekking or cycling can also explore an old abandoned road tunnel. Darkness, bats, frozen drafts and sinister squeaks guarantee 5 thrilling minutes.

 

Old Spoleto-Norcia railway

Old Spoleto-Norcia railway

Walking between heaven and earth: trekking in Valnerina

Valnerina is the ideal setting for those who, with boots on their feet, are looking for a slow experience, in the name of nature and sport. From the Monti Sibillini National Park to the Marmore Falls, each path leads to villages that hold important architectural testimonies or to panoramic points that offer unforgettable views. Trekking in Valnerina means discovering and rediscovering ancient forgotten roads and corners, walking on the border line between heaven and earth, on fox’s or on ancient knights’ traces. Unplug from the everyday life and give yourself a space to live out of time, controlling your steps and feeding yourself with indispensable sensations.

 

Trekking

Between reality and spell: hang-gliding and parachuting

The idea of ​​flying, the desire to imitate birds, has always aroused extraordinary sensations in man, from the myth of Icarus and the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, up to Wright brothers’ invention. However, sitting in comfortable reclining armchairs, we certainly do not feel that sensation to hover in the air. Sensations that pleasantly affect paragliding and hang-gliding enthusiasts. A few steps and away … A long breath and the air seems to suddenly have a scent never felt before. Once in the air, the silence is almost surreal. The only noise you hear is the wind between the sail ropes. The senses are colored with emotions never experienced before. Once the powerful emotional charge of the first seconds is exhausted, you become familiar with this new perspective: it’s time to enjoy the view reserved for the birds and to the lucky few who have this passion in their blood. Down below, with the cutting light of a splendid sunset, the green of the woods and the countryside lights up in all its nuances, and the horizon line becomes more pronounced. An experience to live, halfway between reality and enchantment.

 

hang-gliding

Hang-gliding

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Architecture Culture

«So in the form of a white rose that was shown the holy militia (…) in the great flower came down that is adorned with so many leaves, and then went back where his love always updates». (Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Paradise, Canto XXXI, vv. 1- 2 e 10-12)

The rosewindows, real embroideries of stone placed on the facades of the churches, through their decorations filter the divine light, becoming colored beams that illuminate the aisles. The rose window is a spoke wheel that symbolizes, according to Christian tradition, the dominion of Christ on earth. It is present on the axis of the main nave, sometimes also of the secondary ones or in correspondence of chapels or cross arms. The circular shape and the chromatic range allowed the glass masters to create works of sacred art depicting, in the form of an icon, the most significant passages of the Gospel. The rose window represents the wheel of Fortune: Dante himself defines it as an angelic Intelligence that is based in Empiricism and operates among men through a divine plan. The rosette «clearly explains the cyclical nature of human fortune and confines human time to the immeasurable nature of God’s time».[1]

 

Basilica of San Benedetto

 

Its name, used since the Seventeenth century, is an accretive of the Latin term rosa, which suggests its similarity to the structure of the flower. The rose, whose freshness and beauty suggests an ethereal symbol, also recalls the chalice of Christ.[2]
In the Divine Comedy, in the XXXI canto of Paradise, Dante evokes the celestial rose that gathers in paradise the circle of the blessed admitted to contemplate God. The rose window is closely related to the circle, a symbol of perfection and therefore of God, but at the same time it is also the symbol of the labyrinth, which is created by the many plant motifs present within. The labyrinth recalls the inner search and the initiatory journey. It thus represents a link between the human and the divine worlds.

Church of San Francesco in Norcia

A tour in Valnerina

Umbria, a land of deep mysticism and spirituality, conceals in its territory the footsteps of the saints who changed the face of Christianity. It was in the green hills and highlands of Norcia that found the faith San Benedetto.
In the historic center of the city, stands the Basilica of San Benedetto, built at the birthplace of the saint and then enlarged in the Thirteenth century.
The facade, with a gabled profile, has at the bottom a splayed portal and is enriched at the top by a rose window, decorated with acanthus leaves and accompanied by the symbols of the four evangelists. Unfortunately the church was deeply damaged during the earthquake of 2016, but you can easily guess its ancient splendor.
Of great artistic and architectural interest is the church of San Francesco in Norcia, built entirely in white stone and completed by the Conventual Franciscans.
Valuable is the large rose window that dominates the façade: a frame made with rosettes and round arches, like a real embroidery, pierces the hard stone, revealing its deep meaning through the void of matter but full instead of the divine light.
A few kilometres from the homeland of San Benedetto, in Preci, stands the Hermitage of Sant’ Eutizio. The oldest part of the abbey dates back to the Ninth century and it was completed at the behest of Abbot Tendini I in 1190. The abbey bewitches the viewer as it is entirely built on a terrace between the cliff and the valley below. The rose window, a true jewel of sculpture, prevails over the structure of the church. It is a large circle surrounded by the symbols of the evangelists, typical of Romanesque architecture, but also bears fragments of early medieval sculpture.[3]

Hermitage of Sant’Eutizio

Not far from Norcia another magnificent rose window dominates the facade of the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Vallo di Nera. The church dates back to 1176 and has a façade with stone conce typically Romanesque. It is distinguished by a Gothic portal with an ogive decorated with capitals and friezes and in the upper part a rose window punctuated by twelve columns perfectly in line, which seems to be reabsorbed in the wall.
City deeply linked to spirituality, but also to the symbol of the rose window and therefore to the rose itself: Cascia is a religious center linked to the figure of Saint Rita. In this village stands the church of San Francesco, where the Blessed Franciscan Peace was buried in 1270. A prominent element of the façade, made by Comacini masters, is the refined rose window, very particular because it is given by ingranaggio of the two opposing wheels that create a dynamic effect of rotation. It is composed of eighteen columns with capitals and eighteen trilobed arches, which converge towards the center where there is a Madonna with Child. All around acanthus leaves recall classic motifs. The delicacy of the inlay making this rose window is a true masterpiece of the regional sculptural art. The Umbrian Apennines are the silent guardian of the traces of saints and pilgrims, founders of hermitages inspired by the rules of poverty, solitude and simplicity.
A legend says that Saint Mauro, his son Felice and their nurse passed through Sant’Anatolia di Narco. The population asked Mauro for help to be freed from a dragon that infested those places. Saint Mauro, thanks to divine help, faced and killed the dragon. The episode of the liberation is depicted in the frieze of the façade. In it there is also the rose window, among the most interesting examples of Umbrian Romanesque sculpture, with two rows of columns, inscribed in a square with the apocalyptic symbols.

 

Church of San Francesco

The symbology of the facade is exemplary: the rose window represents Christ, who brings light to the world, identified with the Church, through the voice of the four evangelists who allowed the knowledge.[4]
Finally, one of rose window most particular is that in the church of San Salvatore in Campi di Norcia. The tragic earthquake events of 2016 led to the collapse of much of the building and the destruction of the bell tower dating back to the sixteenth century. The remaining walls have been consolidated to secure the portions of frescoes that will be reinstated in the recovered parts.

 

Church of San Salvatore in Campi di Norcia.

 

The church, nestled in the Umbrian hills, is a rare example with two naves, with two doors and two rose windows, moreover not aligned with the line of the roof. Particularly interesting is the large outer ring of the rose window, carved with acanthus branches arranged in a sinuous spiral rotation. Basilicas, abbeys and small churches, surrounded by green Umbrian typical valleys, magical and mystical places at the same time, but also essential guides that help the visitor, spectator or hermit to grasp the purest and deepest part of Umbria. These and many other places give back precious jewels of a past time. Unfortunately many of them were deeply affected by the earthquake of a few years ago, but very often art and beauty conquer the silence that descends on the rubble, bringing these places back to their ancient beauty.

 

[1] Claudio Lanzi, Sedes Sapientiae The symbolic universe of cathedrals, Simmetria edizioni, Roma, 2009, pag. 162.⇑
[2] M. Feuillet, Lexicon of Christian symbols, Edizioni Arkeios, Roma, 2006, p. 97-98.⇑
[3] L. Zazzerini, Umbria Eremitica. Ubi silentium sit Deus, Edizioni LuoghInteriori, Città di Castello, 2019, pp. 124-131.⇑
[4] L. Zazzerini, Umbria Eremitica. Ubi silentium sit Deus, Edizioni LuoghInteriori, Città di Castello, 2019, p. 109.⇑

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Columns Focus Spare Time Tours

“The town looks solemn and powerful, with its doors, the main road and the church of San Francesco” (M. Tabarrini)

Monteleone di Spoleto, photo by Claudia Ioan

 

Set on a hill along the Corno river valley, Monteleone di Spoleto is among the most fascinating and characteristic villages of Valnerina. Over the centuries, thanks to its position, it gained the appellation of Lions of the Appennines. Its territory is part of one the most typical and uncontaminated environment of the central Apennines.
The city is like a small casket which has been keeping precious objects of history, art and architecture for centuries: in fact, Monteleone boasts very ancient origins, as evidenced by the numerous tombs found in the surroundings. About the ancient wars and battled fighted in the area, numerous testimonies remain. Among them, the famous chariot of the sixth century BC stands. It was found here in the early twentieth century. Inside the local Church of San Francesco is preserved a splendid copy, while the original one is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The town, since ancient times, appears solemn to the visitor in all its majesty; witness of its ancient vestiges, Monteleone shows off all the pride of its history to the traveler. The city, in fact, isolated among the bleak mountains of the Apennines, is rich in symbols and meanings. Such as the repetition of certain numbers: three are the city walls and, each of them, is provided with three doors, moreover, there are six towers and eight ramparts in the city. The castle, surrounded by solid walls, watchtowers and gates, preserves the typical medieval and renaissance appearence, with its houses, churches and noble buildings that overlook alleys and squares. Characteristic element of the whole country is the local white and red rock, which makes the architecture unique, able to recall the magical two-color of the ancient orders of chivalry. The territory has four residential areas (Ruscio, Rescia, Trivio and Butino), whose main activities were agriculture and sheep – farming. But the area was known due to the industrial activities too; such as the Ruscio lignite mines and the iron mines. From these mines according to the tradition, was exctracted the raw materials for the Pantheon gates in Rome.

 

The spelled, photo by Claudia Ioan

Excellence in Monteleone di Spoleto

To make Monteleone di Spoleto an even more wonderful town is the amber color that distinguishes its land: the spelled of Monteleone is among the excellences of Italy. Thanks to the efforts of local producers, it was possible to request and obtain the DOP brand (Protected Designation of Origin).

 

Monteleone di Spoleto, photo by Claudia Ioan

Church of San Francesco

Crossing the town’s walls, it is possible to discover, through pleasant alleys, important historical and artistic treasures.  The Church of San Francesco, built between the 14th and 15th centuries, is one of them. The church is the most remarkable and suggestive monument in Monteleone, because it has been witness of the most significative historical periods of the town.
Originally, the church was dedicated to Saint Maria or better Madonna dell’Assunta, but it has been always commonly known with the name of the poor of Assisi, since the early Franciscans settled there around 1280. The Franciscan order in Monteleone always used the Church for their functions and in every official act, a seal bearing the image of the Assumption abducted in heaven with the initials S (Which stands for Sanctae) and M (which stands for Mariae). Various frescoes decorate the church walls with devotional images probably painted by artists of the the Fourtheen Century Umbrian School

Church of St. Nicholas

The church is located at the highest point of the historical center; It dates back to the early Middle Ages, in fact the first documents date from 1310. It has a single nave with ten chapels with its own altars. The ceiling is coffered and covered with a tempera painted canvas with floral motifs. Among the several works of considerable value, we mention the decollation of St. John the Baptist between St. Anthony from Padova, St. Isidore and La Maddalena, attributed to the painter Giuseppe Ghezzi and the Annunciation, probably a work by Agostino Masucci.

Church of Santa Caterina

In 1310 five Augustinian nuns, coming from the Monastery of St. Catherine in Norcia, asked for a small church and a house in the lower part of Monteleone in order to build a monastery there. Both the house and the church were outside the circle of walls, and they had been built in 1265. The nuns remained there for almost five years. Of the eighteenth-century church, only the perimeter walls remain.

 

Church of Santa Caterina, photo by Enrico Mezzasoma

Church of Santa Maria de Equo

The interior of the church is typical of rural churches: in the center of the church there is an eighteenth-century altar, adorned with a wooden statue of the Madonna with Child; on the sides, inside two niches, there are the wooden statues of St. Peter and St. Paul. Along the left wall is the venerable Gilberto or Liberto, a hermit who lived here for many years.

 

Bibliography: L’Umbria si racconta. Dizionario E-O, Foligno 1982 di Mario Tabarrini.

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Art Culture Spare Time Tours

The itinerary between the flavors and aromas of Valnerina continues with other products of this territory.

After lentils, honey and the Nera’s trout, let’s discover other local delicacies.

Roveja

This is the story of some small colored seeds, two tenacious women and a glass jar. In 1998 Silvana and Geltrude, were reorganizing the cellar of their house, after the earthquake occured in 1979. On this occasion they found a dusty glass jar full of colored seeds, together with a faded sheet of paper with a mysterious name written in pencil: roveja. It is a legume which blossoms on the heights of the Central Apennines. Roveja is a small and heroic legume, a type of wild pea, often considered as a weed. It is now a Slow Food Presidium and it has survived thanks to Silvana and Geltrude. Since 2006 roveja has been restarting to grow and blossom in Valnerina.

 

Norcinerie of Valnerina, photo by Officine Creative Italiane

Norcinerie

There is a craft in the heart of Valnerina, which preserves the identity of a territory and recalls its ancient traditions and memories: the “Norcino”. It finds its roots in the Pagan worships, in which the killing of pigs was the apex of agrarian rituals and marked an important periodo f the year.
The processing of pork meats is still a triumph of flavors and ancient feelings in Umbria.  Over the centuries it has becomes the fulcrum of an impenetrable magical-superstitious tradition. It consists of identifying in some characteristics of the entrails of the slaughtered beasts, prophetic and revealing visions.

 

Saffron, photo by Officine Creative Italiane

Saffron

The mystery which surrounds the etymology of the word Crocus Sativus, scientific name of the Saffron, is lost in the legend of the Crocco, one of the character of the Metamorphoses of Ovidio. He fell in love with the nymph Smilace and he was turned into a blond saffron flower. Symbol of prosperità, even today, the Crocus Sativus is presented as a long-life wish due to the therapeutic and aphrodisiac properties which are able to renew the body. It was used over the centuries, not only to obtain the yellow color destined to frescoes and to dye garments and fabrics, but also for cosmetic and medicinal purposes because of its properties.
The cultivation of Saffron is part of the Umbrian identity and history. It is something which  preserves an important link with the  human element: from the preparation of the soil, to the choice of bulbs passing through the moment of blossoming, until to the packaging of the final product.

 

First part

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Culture Spare Time Tours

The hanged man, the hunchback Severino, Sor Aurelia and two Chinese. These are just some of the mummies that can be known in the Museum of Ferentillo. Ferentillo is in the province of Terni and is in a very particular position staying in the intersection of two rocky ridges that almost meet each other, closing the Nera Valley. The village develops in two parts: Mattarella and Precetto, placed on the two banks of the river Nera.

Mummies

 

Precetto has a thirteenth-century urban structure and a well-extended fortification system: the crenellated walls running along the ridge of the mountain, and the mighty towers have been preserved along the centuries. The area expanding in the lower part, however, is more recent, dating back to the fifteenth century. Its reorganization was authorized by two men, Lorenzo and Francesco, of the noble family Cybo, who had planned the construction of some new churches throughout the territory. They established one of them had to be dedicated to Saint Stephan, and had to be in the area where a church of medieval origin (thirteenth century) had already been built. The old church was not demolished, but it was used as a base for the foundations of new buildings. The modified spaces made possible an alternative use of the church, which, incorporated by the new structure, was readapted to a sepulchral crypt of the upper church.

The crypt

The space was filled with debris, in all probability waste materials coming from the stone used for the upper church. It modified the level of the previous floor. Twenty-four meters long, nine meters wide and two high, the crypt still features architectural and artistic elements dating back to the medieval church phase of the thirteenth century such as the ancient portal and the remains of the apse. From the sixteenth century onwards, all of corpses of Precetto were buried in this place until 1806 when the Napoleonic edict of Saint Cloud, Décret Impérial sur les Sépultures, forbade the burial inside the city walls and imposed the construction of extra-urban cemeteries. In addition the edict also ordered the exhumation of the bodies and so we noticed the perfect mummification of some of them.

 

The museum

Since the nineteenth century the place has become famous for the collection of mummified bodies so it has stimulated the interest of numerous scholars and many visitors. Because of this great interest, in 1992 it was decided to give life to a new museum, using display cases for the conservation of the bodies and welcoming visitors with the singular engraving above the entrance door of the museum: «Today to me, tomorrow to you, I was what you are, you will be what I am. Think mortal that your end is this and thinks that this will be soon».

The mummies

To date there are 21 mummies exhibited at the Museum among men, women and children. There are too,10 heads, 270 skulls, a still sealed coffin and two mummified birds (one of which is an eagle). Moreover, during the last cleaning and maintenance of the crypt, burials have been found in the room before it, maybe destined for the unbaptized. The particularity of the museum, in addition to the extraordinary state of preservation of the dead, lies in the fact that we can really know the mummy that we are facing. In fact, some of them reveal the story that continues to be handed down orally or can be found in the ecclesiastical archives.

 

The Chinese

The Chinese

A particular reconstruction concerns the mummies of two Asians (recognizable by their characteristic physiognomy). The legends tell of a rich man and his bride, probably Chinese, on their honeymoon in Venice. «After a long and happy journey the two young people arrived in the Serenissima […] Being Catholic, the bride called Summer Flower, wanted to visit the city of San Pietro. So they came to Rome. There were a lot of people in the city: it was the extraordinary Holy Year (1750). Unfortunately  the two young men were struck by a terrible disease: the cholera. They fled from the holy city and went into the Umbrian hinterland, perhaps to go to Triponzo where the thermal springs could hope for the miracle of healing. It was a very hot day. The symptoms of evil were evident in Summer Flower […] They were found at dawn on the steps of the church of Santo Stefano. Flower of Summer held tightly the small golden crucifix given to her by her bridegroom A-Tuan». The legend is supported by the presence of their clothes, in good condition until the 1970s.  The lawyerA fun fact regards the body kept in the only still closed coffin in the crypt. It is a local lawyer who was stabbed several times, whose mummy is not exposed with respect to the descendants of the man still living and residing in Ferentillo. Even one of the assailants was killed during the murder, and his body is exposed in one of the museum display cases. «[…] The lawyer was sitting in his office still busy with the processing of some paperwork. Taken the light he hastened to open. He immediately recognized a friend of his. He had come to warn him that a flock was destroying his olive grove […] When they reached the crossroads with the path of the plain, suddenly there emerged two individuals from the great oak tree, who attacked them with a knife. The false and traitorous friend joined those and fell blindly. The lawyer, although he was caught off guard, as he was courageous and courageous, took from his pocket the knife, inseparable companion in those times, and began to defend himself vigorously. Struck to death by the three men, however, had the strength, before falling lifeless, to kill the traitor who now lies with him forever».

The greedy sir

«[…] He ate everything and went crazy for those aniseed donuts that are distributed to the commoners on the anniversary of Sant’Antonio Abate […] It had become the Fable of the country. They all mocked him but not in his presence because they feared his wrath. Very rich, he could afford any extravagance and revenge […] In the evening, while the sir was intent on munching a nice turkey leg, knocked repeatedly at his door. She was a poor old woman, covered in a few rags begging for a piece of bread […] Sir Francesco shouted to the servants to drive her out. The woman, desperate and humiliated, with all the hatred raged against him: “[…] The day will come that your body will not stand up to the weight of the bread you ate and your mouth will no longer be able to eat it”. The anathema must have had its effect since the sir was struck by an incurable disease that deformed his mouth and preventing him from feeding, soon led him to death. There are also the mummies of a young woman who died in childbirth buried with the stillbirth, the one of Sora Aurelia, an old peasant woman with still intact clothes, a bell ringer, a hanged man and the hunchback Severino».   Mummification In 1887 the Accademia dei Lincei published a detailed study on the curious phenomenon of mummification of bodies. The scholars Carlo Maggiorani and Aliprando Moriggia, university professors, supported by the chemist Vincenzo Latini, declared to be convinced that mummification was due to the type of soil rich in silicates of iron and alumina, of sulphate and nitrates of calcium of magnesium and ammonia and also to the ventilation of the room and to the presence on the skin of the mummies of micro-organisms which, by feeding on the decomposable materials of the corpses, dry them quickly. Subsequently the crypt ground was analyzed in an attempt to derive certain data to consolidate the hypotheses formulated on why the bodies were mummified, but the reliable reason has not been identified; however, attempts were made on the process of mummification with bodies of animals, which revealed the rapid process of mummification of the crypt soil. However, it seems probable that the cause of mummifying bodies can be a bacterium that dehydrates bodies.

 

Museum Hours:

1 APRILE – 30 SETTEMBRE Aperto tutti i giorni

Mattina: 10 – 13  Pomeriggio: 15 – 19

1 OTTOBRE – 31 OTTOBRE Aperto tutti i giorni

Mattina: 10 – 13   Pomeriggio: 15 -18

1 NOVEMBRE – 28 FEBBRAIO Aperto tutti i giorni

Mattina: 10 – 13  Pomeriggio: 15 – 17

1 MARZO – 31 MARZO Aperto tutti i giorni

Mattina: 10 -13  Pomeriggio: 15 -18

L’ingresso al museo è consentito fino a 15 minuti prima della chiusura.

INFORMAZIONI E PRENOTAZIONI tel: 328 6864226 — 335 6543008

e-mail: info@mummiediferentillo.it web: www.mummiediferentillo.it

 

Bibliography:

  1. Favetti, Ferentillo Segreta… Storia di un Principato…, Tipolito Visconti, Terni, 2005
  2. Santini, Guida di Terni e del ternano, Tipolitografia Petruzzi, Città di Castello, 1998
  3. Carlo Favetti e Annamaria Pennacchi, Le Mummie di Ferentillo, Edizioni Quattroemme, Ponte San Giovanni (PG), 1993

 

Sitography: 

http://www.mummiediferentillo.it/mummie/

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_delle_mummie_di_Ferentillo

http://luoghidavedere.it/luoghi-da-vedere-in-italia/cosa-vedere-in-umbria/museo-mummie-ferentillo-storia-orari-raggiungere_10680

http://www.museiprovinciaterni.it/context_musei.jsp?ID_LINK=508&area=47

 

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Agriculture Environment Nature Tours

«The mountains are silent masters that make silent disciples», wrote Goethe. Inflexible masters who evoke the mysteries and torments of silence in the soul of those who listen to them. Ancestral places where earth and sky unite, where verticality merges with mass, with the heaviness of the earth. Stone cathedrals and memories where the caducity of the land enlenìvens in contact with heaven.

Pian di Chiavano

 

The Altopiano di Chiavano is nothing more than the rock bridge that still preserves the relationship between earth and sky, the stage of an ancient amphitheater whose audiences are lost among the mosaics of clouds.
It is as if a painter’s brush had lingered on this part of the Valnerina by drawing the skyline of countries and countryside in which the human being promptly crept in. But never nature has lent itself docile to the intervention of man: small funds taken from the mountain, improvised pastures and uneven tracts that, losing themselves in the heart of the plateau, seem to remind those who observe them that here Nature always manifests itself according to Leopardi’s ideal: mother and stepmother, double face of the same coin. Modeled by the human labors to assume an almost human profile, the countryside appears composed, almost asleep, in a vortex of pastel colors and shadow games, in a chromatic progress much more similar to the landscapes of ancient Scotland than to the typical hilly environment of Umbria.

Natural scenographies

In times of ruinous loss of cultural identity, the Chiavano Plateau jealously preserves dusty reminiscences of a still alive folk tradition, which resists stoically with the disappearance of its earliest treasurers. A popular tradition considered as the summary of many lives, capable of mysteriously interpenetrating the meaning of things, even the most common. Near the junction point of the ancient Roman road system rises Coronella, a town that owes its name to the marble column used by the Romans as a reference in the construction of any road system[1]. A ghost town, which appears and disappears behind trees grown in abandoned gardens; a country that lives only on the 15th of August, the day when the church shutters are reopened, on a feast that is as simple as it is felt. The mystery of faith that lives again in improvised processions, in sacred kiosks that indicate the path to follow to the shepherd and the flock by the mountain route, in those climbs that are above all life experiences.
On the scenic backdrop of these peaks, the shadows of the empty and silent dwellings, unarmed in front of the inexorable passing of time, are projected. But it is precisely this silence that leaves space for introspection, a silence that is empty of words, but not emotions. Yet there are plenty of silences and catching the differences is not easy. Some are atrocious: silences of death and chilling loneliness, while others are desired, long awaited or surprisingly unexpected. Eloquent silences in which the principle of non-contradiction also fails. Silences in which fear and courage converge, tears and smiles, questions and answers, coincidentia oppositorum.

 

The relationship between man and earth

Stormy peaks, but for what they evoke in the soul of those who scrutinize them. And then, the best attitude to be implemented is the one of attention, the one of stopping to contemplate. Because we are not always able to immediately understand the hidden message behind the silence of nature. Ancient figures, almost sinister, inhabit this silent plateau. Gnarled hands and faces dug by sweat, a bitter sweat that finds its reason in the generous fruits of the earth. People used to the tiring mountain life, which rejects the easy idols of so-called progress. And it is in those gnarled hands that the most intimate meaning of this morbid attachment to the earth is to be sought, of this strong devotion to fatigue and work, which is ennobled, but which makes man similar to the beasts. Yet it seems that between the peasants and nature there is an almost mystical relationship, able to break the link with the sacred and mix with the profane to merge as a single stream in the vast ocean of popular tradition. A complex territory that not even its oldest inhabitant knows deep down, a cauldron of traditions, culture and stories whose origins seem to be lost in the mists of time.
A land that exudes popular wisdom, in which the ghosts and memories of a distant past are superimposed, but never forgotten. A glorious past, which has its roots in the splendor of ancient Rome and in the countryside surrounding the small village of Villa San Silvestro, a village of just twenty souls became famous for the presence of a Roman temple probably dedicated to Hercules. The genesis of the hero to whom the temple is dedicated, the result of the carnal union between the terrestrial Alcmena and Jupiter, seems to further strengthen the relationship between this earth and the sky, between matter and the celestial, between what is human and the divine. On the podium of the Roman temple stands the church of the village, in the point where, in a not too distant past, votive choirs were raised aimed at the deities of the Roman pantheon, in a place where a deep fear of the divine dwells.
And it is precisely from Chiavano that begins our journey, from the terrace overlooking this wild land whose children, both in the great deeds and in those daily, have managed to express a value and a passion in some cases almost heroic, that only those who live one step from heaven he manages to show off in the hardest battles, in those superhuman silences that make noise.

 

[1] Si tratta della cosiddetta pietra miliare vedi http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/miliare1/.⇑

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Columns Recipes

[For 8 people]

Ingredients for ravioli: 

  • 600 g flour
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 pinch of salt

Ingredients for the filling:

  • 1 kg of ricotta
  • 5 eggs
  • 10 tablespoons of sugar
  • 3 tablespoons of rum
  • 3 tablespoons of alckermes
  • 1 pinch of cinnamon

Season with: sugar and cinnamon 

 

Preparation:

Blend ricotta with a fork, add the eggs, sugar, arckermes, rum and cinnamon. Prepare, with the eggs, flour and a pinch of salt, a normal phyllo dough; make ravioli. Boil and season with cinnamon and sugar.

The sweet ravioli in Norcia – or, as they call them in that city, cravioli – were served in winter, for Carnival, sometimes as a dessert, others as a single dish, others as a first course. They could also be fried; in this case they are cold-served.

 

 

Courtesy of Calzetti – Mariucci Editore 

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Environment Nature Spare Time Tours

Preci belongs to the Club
I Borghi Più Belli d’Italia

 

Taking the path 505 from Triponzo to Visso, we go up along the tortuous course of a stream. They call it lu raiu de la scafa, whereas raiu, derived from gravarium, indicates a dejection of crushed stone.
At times it will be necessary to wade the river, trying not to slip on the wet rocks, and trying to distinguish the obstacles from the shadow games of the fronds’ dome over our heads.
Then the rocky walls, straight and smooth as if they had been cut with a blade, will attract us in a narrow gorge, recalling us with the hypnotic sound of the pouring water.

La cascata de Lu Cugnuntu, foto di Maurizio Biancarelli

Lu Cugnuntu

We are in Valnerina, a few kilometers from the village of Preci, where the ditch of San Lazzaro and the ditch Acquastrino are thrown into what is a real wound in the calcareous layers of red sliver that characterize the area. Not by chance, the gorge is called Lu Cugnuntu, the conjunction – from the Latin coniunctio, even if it could be derived from the vulgar coniuntius, a sort of hydraulic pipe. At the foot of the juncture, you are hit by a cloud of aerosol, released from the water that falls for twenty-four meters.

 

Upstream, the calcarenites – rocks rather resistant to erosion – have in fact created a gradient that gives rise to a majestic spectacle, almost overwhelming for that narrow slit.
Although the guides recommend taking this excursion in spring, when getting wet it is not a problem, it is in winter that the gorge releases its magical atmosphere. It is not just for the greater range, but also for the low temperatures that, by freezing the aerosol, create icy tapestries that decorate the steep walls.

Miraculous waters

In ancient times it was believed that these waters had therapeutic powers, such as those near Triponzo and Madonna della Peschiera. The conviction was such that, in 1218, was created a leper colony, also favored by the isolated position. In a parchment of 1342, we read as Razzardo di Roccapazza – Roccapazza was a castle that was completely destroyed by the earthquake of 1328 – had donated a land, partly cultivated and partly used as a pasture, to the village of San Lazzaro in Valloncello. For some, Razzardo was influenced by Saint Francis, or at least by the Franciscan ideology that was beginning to take hold; in any case the structure that was built, annexed to the homonymous church, was entrusted first to the monks of the Abbey of Sant’Eutizio, then to the minor friars and to the Franciscans.
The same parchment shows that the sick could live in the leper colony with their families, but they could not leave it in any case. Food was thought to be prodigious, like mountain viper meat. In the same way, we know that the superiors enjoyed the privilege of ordering hospitalization for the sick of the dioceses of Spoleto, Camerino and Ascoli, even if their relatives did not approve.
The leper colony – of which the central aisles of the adjoining church are still visible – was suppressed in 1490 by Pope Innocent VIII, because fortunately the cases of leprosy were disappearing.

 

 

Cascata de Lu Cugnuntu:

Latitude 42 ° 51’04”N Longitude: 12 ° 59’19”E
Maximum altitude: 620 m
Travel time: 2h
Length: 1.75 km
Difference in height: +220 m / -220 m
Water points: 3
Scenic value: high
Panoramic site: low
Access mode

  • on foot: easy
  • by bike: difficult
  • On horseback: average
  • By car: not allowed

Recommended seasons: all
Tips for hikers: wear waterproof shoes and helmet

 

Sources:

R. Borsellini, Riflessi d’Acqua – Laghi, fiumi e cascate dell’Umbria, Città di Castello, Edimond, 2008.

M.Biancarelli, L’Umbria delle Acque, Ponte San Giovanni, Quattroemme, 2003.

www.lavalnerina.com

www.iluoghidelsilenzio.it

Int.Geo.Mod srl (a cura di), Parco geologico della Valnerina, Spoleto, Nuova Eliografica s.n.c..

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Architecture Culture Spare Time Tours

As has already happened before, but in this case, it comes from a small strip of wounded land in the heart of the “Heart of Italy”. A sprout of future for Italy and Europe.

Montanari testoni

 

Four documentaries, four stories about Valnerina’s rebirth. A year after the earthquake that hit central Italy, four documentaries, written, produced and realized with the Restart project. Comunità Resistenti by MenteGlocale – permanent laboratory of social communication, based in Perugia – tell the stories of a land, the Umbrian Valnerina, which reacted to the earthquake’s material and moral damages.
Norcia, Campi, Cascia, Ruscio: the earthquake struck the populations touching them in the affections, in the habits and in the small and great security of everyday life. These mountaineers were injured but not defeated, and in some cases they were able to react to the difficulties by rolling up their sleeves. Written by Filippo Costantini, Giorgio Vicario and Daniele Suraci, who has also directed and edited the Restart project. Comunità Resistenti, it was created with the contribution of Corecom Umbria, through the 2017 Community TV competition.

The four docu-films

The four docu-films try to tell the stories of these territories, the stories little known or that few tell. People and places are the protagonists, who go beyond the earthquake and try to roll up their sleeves to start over and move on.

 

  • Montanari testoni

Born in November 2016 in Norcia, inside a field tent, the Montanari Testoni association was promoted by a group of young people from the territory to face together the adversities related to the earthquake. It was created to talk and discuss the personal and collective situation and to propose activities of participation, sharing, collaboration and cultural promotion dedicated to the inhabitants of Norcia. From a collection center for food and clothes, a real social center, the container has hosted in recent months – and continues to do so – condominium meetings, workshops for children, film clubs and much more, until the rehearsals of the famous Corale di Norcia, left without a seat, and has now become a fundamental reference point for the entire nursery community.

 

Sisters of Cascia

Sisters of Cascia

 

  • Rita

In Cascia, after the shock of October 30th, 2016, several buildings became unusable, but except for a few cases there were no collapses. For security reasons, for the first time in the history of Cascia the Basilica of Santa Rita was closed and the Augustinian cloistered nuns had to leave the monastery, returning after a few weeks. They tell the life in the Cloistered Monastery of the Sisters of Cascia and the relationship between the Casciani and Saint Rita: in a Cascia hit by the earthquake the icon of the Saint is a concrete presence of hope for the future.

 

  • Maddalena

Ruscio is a small fraction of the Municipality of Monteleone di Spoleto composed by two-storey houses, historical buildings, three churches, two squares, a bridge and many fountains. The village develops along a single road cut by a bridge that divides Ruscio above from Ruscio below. The fraction, where there are permanently seventy people, has not suffered much damage. The material signs of the recent earthquakes are there, but they are not very strong: the most evident damages are in people and are linked to the fear of depopulation, to the fear that at least for a few years it will no longer be the same. Every year in the summer the rusciari scattered in the world return to the small Umbrian village to spend their holidays, repopulating houses that for most of the year are carefully guarded by the few stable inhabitants of the country. On August 24th the traditional Rusciari Dinner is celebrated, an indispensable moment to say goodbye before returning to their places of residence. In 2016, due to the earthquake, the dinner was canceled.

 

  • Doctormonster

Back to Campi is the dream of Roberto Doctormonster Sbriccoli, bricklayer-dj of Campi, a fraction of the Municipality of Norcia strongly affected by the shocks of 2016. The upper part of the village is red zone, all the houses are unusable, and several are collapsed. Between the upper and lower parts of the village stands the headquarters of the Pro Loco, a structure inaugurated just four days before the earthquake of August 24th, 2016 and built by the inhabitants of Campi – ed by Doctormonster. A class four anti-seismic structure that was immediately used as an emergency reception center. In the weeks following the shock, it hosted up to ninety people, proving to be fundamental for shelter and assistance. Animator and coordinator of the space was Docmonster, who is also the president of the Pro Loco. These were difficult days, full of discouragement and nervousness, but that place was fundamental. Today many of the inhabitants of Campi live in the newly delivered containers and wooden houses.
Docmonster has a dream called Back to Field, a € 4 million project that aims to build a multi-purpose center for tourism and sport on a newly acquired site by Pro Loco. It is a project that aims to provide a complete and equipped with all the services to those who will be on vacation in the summer (before the earthquake many people choose this place for summer holidays) in these areas and has the ambition to be a multi-purpose center for pre-season retreats of the teams of different sports. Docmonster took it upon himself to realize this project.

 

 

The video: http://www.menteglocale.com/

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Nature Spare Time Tours

A route made of byroads, paths, riverbanks and perched villages. This is what the Greenway is about.

Marmore Waterfall

Marmore Waterfall

 

A pedestrian and cycle path has been created in the green heart of Valnerina, with the aim of letting people know and live these places which have been neglected far too long. It is a 180-kilometre ring dedicated to nature lovers. It is not too difficult nor too challenging and allows the wanderers to enjoy the landscape along the Nera River and its outfalls as well as the local cultural aspect, which can be appreciated while crossing the historical villages.

The Idea

The Greenway has been thought to promote Valnerina and the area belonging to the mountain community. However, there is more. It started, indeed, as a real environmental emergency, to preserve the landscape while exploiting its huge potential, but respecting its ecological balance at the same time. Thus, it has become a straightforward learning tool about nature and its articulate shapes, the place where a creative and engaging approach can be experimented to attract new forms of tourism and knowledge of the territory.

The routes

The first step to connect the visitor to the territory has been identifying and arranging an alternative route, which you can either walk or ride on a bike or a horse. The starting point is at Marmore Waterfall, which is also the arrival point. It is a ring completely immersed in greenery, which allows the tourist to enter an unchartered world made of green paths and enchanting villages. Thus, in a place beloved by Lord Byron and all the other travellers who revered the Grand Tour, you can set off on a long route partly formed by chartered paths: Benedectine trails, the Via Francigena, and the former Spoleto-Norcia railway.
From the Marmore Falls to the fork to Preci it is possible to walk along the Nera. The left bank of the river is entirely viable and is one of the most interesting dirt roads of central Italy. From there it is possible to take a mountain trail which has been connected and which crosses Preci, Norcia, Cascia, Monteleone di Spoleto, Salto del Cieco, Piediluco, Prati di Stroncone and then goes back to the Waterfall going though Campacci di Marmore (The upper Belvedere).

 

Marmore Waterfall

 

As a ring, the Greenway can be followed one way or the other. As to make it accessible to anybody, it has been divided into sixteen stretches, each of them a ring itself, so that it is easier for the travellers to go back to the starting point without having to follow the same route. Many of the stretches along the river, from the Falls to Preci, are mostly flat even though the mountainous ones on the way back to the Fall can present quite challenging climbs. Yet, these can be avoided by choosing the alternative paved and low-traffic routes. Each of these routes is five to twenty-two kilometres long. By joining several trails, you can plan a journey any length you like. Each route, clearly indicated by signposts, goes through residential areas where public services are provided. Moreover, along the route all the paths that take to the protected natural areas are clearly signalled.

A trip for everybody

 The Greenway is a route accessible to everybody. It is completely safe as it is dedicated to non-motorised users and it grants access to anyone thanks to the so-called “soft-traffic”, which allows the tourists to enjoy the area they are crossing slowly as to observe the surrounding landscape in all its aspects.

 

Nera River

Nera River

 

Sitografia: http://www.lagreenwaydelnera.it/it

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