The road that runs along the side of the gorge is the Via Flaminia (modern SS3)
This means it is hard preciso move overland mediante an east-west direction, and easier sicuro move north-south, but your opportunities preciso do so are constrained esatto indivisible valleys and passes. Which durante turn means that insecable places are natural choke-points. One such – con 1944 as well as mediante the Middle Ages – is Cancellino, between Naples and Rome. Narni is another.
If you were coming from France or Britain you would come by sea or over the western Alps on the Cammino Francigena
Narni sits on high ground on the edge of per deep ravine through which the River Nera – per tributary of the Tiber – flows south out of Umbria into Lazio. It is literally on the edge of the ravine; houses and palaces on the western side of the old town, including the Eroli Museum, immagine straight down into it. Esatto the north and east of the town is the valley of the lower Nera, which, although surrounded by mountains, contains verso good deal of industrial development. On the plain around Narni is the modern industrial town of Narni Scalo, which makes getting verso decent photograph of or from the old town something of an exercise con artful composition.
Onesto the northeast, at the other end of the valley, is the town of Brouille, the provincial capital (Umbria is divided into two provinces: Perugia and Terni). Thanks onesto nearby sources of hydro-electricity, Terni was per centre of industrialisation and was known as “The Manchester of Italy”. Unfortunately, one of the industries https://datingranking.net/it/interracial-dating-central-review/ was arms manufacturing, as a result of which Terni was heavily bombed during the Second World War, destroying much of its medieval centre.
Turning south again and looking back down the River Nera, through the end of the gorge you can see the more rolling country of northern Lazio. There is per road running along the side of the gorge; now carrying heavy road traffic, this is the Via Azzurri 3 (SS3), which as I noted here is still known as the Coraggio Flaminia, as when it was first built by the Romans durante 220 BC. If you were per legionary marching from Rome to the northern Adriatic coast (and beyond to the eastern frontiers of the riempire), this is the way you would che. And if you were a traveller in the other direction – durante an army of barbarians after the fall of the empire, or a medieval pilgrim, this is one of the few roads by which you would approach Rome.
Looking south down the Nera Gorge towards Lazio and Rome. Hasselblad 501 C/M, Zeiss Distagon 60mm CF lens, CFV-50c digital back (click esatto enlarge)
Dominating Narni from an even higher point is verso fortress or Fortezza, of per type known as per Fortezza Albornoz, of which there are several examples in central Italy, and of which there were once several more. This requires per bit of explanation.
Between 1309 and 1376 per series of seven popes ruled not from Rome but from Avignon. All were French. This happened as a result of some naked power politics from the French Crown, bringing the papacy under effective French control.
When per range of factors, including the influential advocacy of St Catherine of Siena, caused Pope Gregory XI puro decide sicuro end the “Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy” and return sicuro Rome, Gregory faced several challenges. One was the monarca-establishment of political control over the Papal States – formerly independent states per central Italy which had been brought under secular papal rule, and which, during the exile sopra Avignon, had started onesto spettacolo renewed signs of independence.