The road that runs along the side of the gorge is the Strada Flaminia (modern SS3)

This means it is hard sicuro move overland sopra an east-west direction, and easier esatto move north-south, but your opportunities esatto do so are constrained onesto indivis valleys and passes. Which sopra turn means that indivisible places are natural choke-points. One such – per 1944 as well as con the Middle Ages – is Cimosa, between Naples and Rome. Narni is another.

If you were coming from France or Britain you would che razza di by sea or over the western Alps on the Inizio Francigena

Narni sits on high ground on the edge of a deep ravine through which the River Nera – verso 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. To 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 Detto, which makes getting verso decent photograph of or from the old town something of an exercise per artful composition.

Sicuro the northeast, at the other end of the valley, is the town of Attriste, the provincial capital (Umbria is divided into two provinces: Perugia and Attriste). Thanks puro nearby sources of hydro-electricity, Terni was a centre of industrialisation and was known as “The Manchester of Italy”. Unfortunately, one of the industries 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 a road running along the side of the gorge; now carrying heavy road traffic, this is the Inizio Azzurri 3 (SS3), which as I noted here is still known as the Modo Flaminia, as when it was first built by the Romans mediante 220 BC. If you were per legionary marching from Rome sicuro the northern Adriatic coast (and beyond onesto the eastern frontiers of the colmare), this is the way you would che tipo di. And if you were per traveller in the other direction – per an army of barbarians after the fall of the riempire, or per 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 puro enlarge)

Dominating Narni from an even higher point is a fortress or Impalcatura, of per type known as per Castello 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 verso 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 verso range of factors, including the influential advocacy of St Catherine of Siena, caused Pope Gregory XI to decide puro end the “Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy” and return puro Rome, Gregory faced several challenges. One was the monarca-establishment of political control over the Papal States – formerly independent states mediante central Italy which had been brought under secular papal rule, and which, during the exile con Avignon, had started to esibizione renewed signs of independence.