According to the tradition, St. Emiliano's olive-tree is the oldest in Umbria and probably all over Italy. The plant is near Bovara, a small village close to Trevi, 200 metres height from the homonym Benedectine Abbey, which was founded in 1158. Since two thousand years, it has produced olives. Moreover, it's divided into three trunks coming out from a unic stump and it has a 9 metres perimeter. Its name comes from Trevis' patron, who was tied up to the olive-tree in 304 and then beheaded.
Concordia Theatre
Concordia is one of the smallest theatres in the world. It has infact 99 seats. It is in Monte Castello di Vibio, near Todi, and was built following the will of the richest families who lived in this little village. The theatre was opened in 1808 and then dedicated to harmony among people. In 1892 it was completely decorated by a 14 years old painter, Luigi Agretti. The restoration ended in 1993 after 7 years of works, which took the old theatre back to its beauty.
An imaginary town
In Montegiove, close to Orvieto, Scarzuola Convent, founded by St. Francis in 1218, has been transformed into an amazing and rich of symbologies place. This huge work is due to the architect Tommaso Buzzi, who bought the entire monastery in 1956 and, up to his death in 1981, he worked to build his Ideal Town. Going beyond the convent and the still consecrated church, you go into 7 theatres, overlooked by the acropolis, a wonderful whole of buildings (some of them are empty), constructed one on the other to create an endless perspective, where old and new mix. All these Neomannerist spaces in the garden have been called with evocative names, such as Angel Tower, Mother Earth Temple, Meditation Tower, Water Theatre. Today this area belongs to the Big Italian Gardens.
Prehistoric traces
The rocks of "Gola del Bottaccione", near Gubbio, keep perfect and global sedimentations, so much that scholars consider them historical archives of earthly evolution. Infact, they make think that the reversal of the magnetic field happened at the same time of dinosaurs' disappearance. This phenomenon strenghtens the theory of the collision between earth and some huge meteorites. Analysing the limestone layers of the rocks close to Gubbio, scientists found traces of these events, happened 30-50 thousand years ago, during the passage from the Cretaceous to the Aeocene age.
Mummies' Museum
In Ferentillo, the Romanesque crypt of St. Stephen's church has been used for a long time as a burial place. Thanks to both the weather conditions and the chimical and physical earthly features, a distinguishing phenomenon happened here. Infact, dead bodies, buried in this place during the past, were subjected to a perfect process of mummification, that kept intact clothes as well. Today some mummies are gathered into a closet, others lean on the crypt's walls. A funny and even unexplainable thing is the presence of two dead bodies, a Chinese or Oriental man and a woman.
The petrified forest
About one thousand and half years ago, a cataclysm, maybe a flood or an earthquake, buried some sequoia-trees near Avigliano Umbro. In 1979 these remains were rediscovered and the prooves of a Pliocene age forest, the fossil forest of Dunarobba, came out. This place has a huge importance for scientists because of the trunks' size (up to 1,5 m in diameter and 8 m in height) and the wooden structure. The forest stood on the big Tiberino lake's sides. Today, the remaining trunks are about 50 and they stand in a place where time seems to have stopped.
The cave and Pale waterfalls
Close to Belfiore, few kilometers from Foligno, there are Pale waterfalls. They are three and originate from the flood Menotre. These waterfalls are hidden in a blooming vegetation. A rocky pyramid overlooks this place. The rock is called "Sasso di Pale" (958 m.), a limestone and rough massif. At its top, rests of a Pre-roman sanctuary were found. In the neighbourhood, there's also the Pale cave, made up with carved cavities, galleries and spectacular stalactites and stalagmites.
