Click2Flicks - Under the Tuscan Sun: The Story Behind the Movie, Chapter 4, UMBRIA and TUSCANY

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b><i>UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN</i></p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 4 - UMBRIA and TUSCANY</b></font></p> </div>  <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">No one knows for sure how the Umbrians of <a target="_blank" href="images/central.italy.jpg"><b>central Italy</b></a> got their name. <a href="http://www.umbriadoc.com/Eng/viaggi/generale/viaggidoc.htm" target="_blank"><b>Inhabiting</b></a> their lands for at least a thousand years before <a href="http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/caesar.html" target="_blank"><b>Julius Caesar</b></a> crossed the <a target="_blank" href="images/Rubicon.jpg"><b>Rubicon</b></a> (signaling <a href="http://www.ibiscom.com/caesar.htm" target="_blank"><b>the end</b></a> of the Roman Republic and fueling <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.html" target="_blank"><b>the start</b></a> of the Empire), this <a href="http://www.argoweb.it/croceserra/storia.uk.html" target="_blank"><b>ancient</b></a> Indo-European people ultimately gave their name to a <a target="_blank" href="images/land.locked.gif"><b>land-locked</b></a> region of the country.</p> <p>Writing centuries after their arrival, Pliny (historian of the ancient world) speculated that the Umbrians moved to the Italian peninsula after the Great Flood. Archeological excavations, in fact, <a href="http://srs.dl.ac.uk/arch/posters/beatrice-oxford-poster/sld002.htm" target="_blank"><b>reveal</b></a> that man has lived in the region since <a href="http://www.archeopg.arti.beniculturali.it/English/museo/prcollezioneBellucci.htm" target="_blank"><b>prehistoric</b></a> times. But the first historical <a href="http://www.ciaodarling.com/italy/umbria/history.htm" target="_blank"><b>documents</b></a> referring to Umbrians, per se, did not appear (insofar as current scholarship is concerned) until the Oscan-Umbrian tribe settled north of Rome around 1,000 B.C. That was about <a href="http://www.virginia.edu/history/courses/fall03/hieu201/timeline.html" target="_blank"><b>the time</b></a> David was King of Israel.</p> <p>Known today as the “Green Heart of Italy,” Umbria is also the site of interesting burial chambers. Some of the most fascinating are near the town of <a target="_blank" href="images/spoleto.jpg"><b>Spoleto</b></a> and date back to the <a href="http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/ash/oopp/AncientItaly/14_chapter_4.html" target="_blank"><b>Bronze</b></a> or Iron Ages.</p> <p>The Umbrians formed towns which still exist:</p> <center><a target="_blank" href="images/assisi.gif"><b>Assissi</b></a></center><br> <center><a target="_blank" href="images/terni.jpg"><b>Terni</b></a></center><br> <center><a target="_blank" href="images/todi.jpg"><b>Todi</b></a></center><br> <center><a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07055a.htm" target="_blank"><b>Gubbio</b></a></center><br> <p>The Etruscans were not content to rule their own territory to the west of Umbria. They forced the Umbrians to concede much of their land, causing them to retreat to the region’s valleys and plains. Some of the Etruscan-formed settlements in Umbria still reflect those ancient beginnings with cities (like <a target="_blank" href="images/Perugia.jpg"><b>Perugia</b></a>, <a target="_blank" href="images/orvieto.jpg"><b>Orvieto</b></a>, and <a target="_blank" href="images/citta.della.jpg"><b>Citta della Pieve</b></a>) evolving around ridge roads instead of central squares (like Roman towns).</p> <p>Although the Etruscan and Umbrian civilizations, standing alone, were over when they could not resist the might of Rome, their lasting effects have been enormous. At the battle of Sentino, in 295 B.C., Roman legions ended the Etruscan alliance. A once-flourishing culture was soon assimilated into the Roman sphere of influence. By 90 B.C., Umbrians had become Roman citizens.</p> <p>More than 2,000 years later - in 1990 - an American professor of creative writing decided to buy a 200-year-old farmhouse near the Tuscan-Umbrian border. The sun, which had once shone on the region’s prehistoric people, would now shine on Frances Mayes.</p> </div> <center> <p align="center"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"><a href="tuscan_sun_ch3.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER </a>  <a href="tuscan_sun_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="tuscan_sun_ch5.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>