Around Foligno 

San Giovanni Profiamma

Bus number 61 connects Foligno and San Giovanni Profiamma on weekdays (as at June 2008):

The Romans established a settlement called Forum Flaminii here in ca. 220 BC at the northern junction of the two branches of Via  Flaminia. 

St Felician was born here in 169 and Pope Victor I ordained him as the first bishop of the city.  He held this position until his death in ca. 251.  The Lombards destroyed this city in ca. 740. 

The church of San Giovanni Profiamma was built here  before 1138 using material from a Christian basilica (6th century AD) that had stood nearby.  The present town grew up around the church in the 17th century.

The Roman baths and other Roman remains were excavated her in an ad hoc way in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Some of these finds are exhibited in Room 4 of the Museo Archeologico, and part of the mosaic floor of the early Christian basilica are exhibited in Room 7.

Pale and Sassovivo

This hike from the sanctuary of Santa Maria di Giacobbe at Pale to the Abbazia di Sassovivo can be done on weekdays using the bus to get to the start: line 58 leaves Foligno station at 09:03 (as at June 2008) and arrives at Belfiore (the end of the route) at 09:25.   For details of the route, go to the page "Hike: Belfiore - Foligno". 

You can finish the walk after about 4 hours at Uppello: bus 57 leaves Uppello at 16:40 (as at June 2008) and arrives at Foligno, Porta Romana at 16:55.  Alternatively, you can walk into Foligno (another hour) via San Bartolomeo di Marano (which you can alternatively visit as part of Walk III).

Colfiorito

[This section is in construction]

This trip needs a car.  Take SS 77 to Colfiorito (some 27 km). 

Turn right along Via Plestia (signed to Pievetorina and Visso).  This road traverses an the upland plateau that provided an important pass across the Apennines from the Valle Umbra to the Adriatic from an early date. The church of Santa Maria di Plestia is found in what is now an isolated spot after just over 1 km along this road. 

An Umbrian people called the Plestini lived on the shores of a lake (drained in the 15th century) here from the 10th to the 7th century BC before moving to a series of hill forts to the north (see below).      The Romans built  a settlement here which they called Plestia. Finds from the excavations of this site are exhibited in the Museo dei Plestini in Colfiorito and in the Museo Archeologico, Foligno.

[Describe the national park here and the Umbrian hill fort (7th century BC) at Monte Orve]