They left by sea, in the mists of time, perhaps from the "Meonia" (a region of ancient Turkey in the hinterland of today's Smyrna ), a contingent of Etruscan colonizers; they crossed the Mediterranean and, going up the Tiber, came to settle on the slopes that overlook the great Tiber Valley,
founding a galaxy of villages, destined to maintain, in the centuries to come, the capacity to attract human settlements. Today some of these villages, have become stupendous "Teverina"'s gems: Bomarzo, Chia, Mugnano.
These pioneering etruscan peoples planted seeds of an immortal civilization and wrote the first chapters of a history carved in the stone, in the volcanic tufa which these hilly, woody territories are made with, leaving innumerable rock traces. This history and this "landscape sculpture" work will go on with the Romans, in the Middle Ages and again in the Renaissance, under the sign of the Orsini Family, coming up to the modern era, when the Tiberine peasants' civilization will take possession of the Etruscan caves, the ancient mills, the rocky churches and sanctuaries, etc. turning them into their daily living and working spots or building myths and legends around them. Today's trails in these impervious and wooded areas, immersed in an enchanted and secret atmosphere, lead us to discover the deep gorge of the "Castello" stream, under The Chia Medieval Castle, a dark and a bit striking place, smelling of mosses'moisture, pierced by sun rays, that hardly penetrate the tree canopy's cover and that play with reflections on the water and with the drooping ferns fronds and the dense dead leaves carpet colors. We find as well archaeological treasures ranging from the mysterious Etruscan sacrificial pyramid of Bomarzo to the countless caves in the surrounding area, the medieval-Renaissance mills with the related river barrier works, the early Christian church of S. Cecilia in a network of cave ways. Etruscan paths and bridges will make us relive the industrious people coming and going, with donkeys and mules loaded with timber, grain, or various commodities. The itinerary pivot will be the Chia Castle with its tower soaring over 40 meters, which was Pier Paolo Pasolini's home and inspirational spot from 1970 and for his last years. In this period, among other things, he has deepened and popularized his interest, his profound poetic sensitivity and clarity of vision, about the "landscape shape issue" in a period of dramatic territorial transformations under the push of building and economic boom, inducing profound wounds in traditional rural lanscape's harmony.
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