The location of Terni, which in Roman times was called Interamna because it lies between two rivers, and its position down in the valley, compared with the nearby small towns set on cliffs and the surrounding hills, make the city a crossroads of tourist places and places of worship found throughout the Umbria Region.
In the mid-1800s, following the Unification of Italy, the city’s commercial activities consisted of manufacturing trades that had grown up around the abundant waters carried by the streams and the city, from rural and craft-based, was moving toward a different economic and social identity thanks to the rise of major industrial sites.
Industry still represents an important sector of the Umbrian economy, but alongside it, Terni has other sectors in strong growth, such as tourism for its cultural beauties (Roman-era buildings, Renaissance palaces) and its age-old places of worship.
Around the city stretches a rich landscape of distinctive medieval villages. The towns of Stroncone, Acquasparta, San Gemini, Narni, Amelia, Orvieto and many other small centres, each with folk events and typical gastronomy and rich in history, strengthen at the same time the identity of these places and enhance their traditions.
The green hills and the many waterways show their natural beauty. Lake Piediluco overlooks and feeds the Marmore Falls, the highest waterfall in Europe, which stirs strong emotions for the rushing volume and power of the water that plunges down the valley after a drop of one hundred and sixty-five metres.
In the natural area of the Valnerina are the main centres for sports in contact with unspoilt natural landscapes. Routes for lovers of cycling, canoeing, horse riding, hiking on foot, sport fishing, rafting, hydrospeed, rock climbing, canyoning, skydiving, hang-gliding and paragliding, wind-surfing: these are only some of the sports activities practised in these places by tourists and by simple lovers of sport and nature who wish to stay in close contact with a healthy environment.
Water in the City of Terni not only supports industry and makes it possible to practise the many sports mentioned above. Notable, in fact, are also the mineral-water springs that supply the many thermal resorts.
There are also Roman-era sites, such as the ancient city of Carsulae, crossed by the Via Flaminia, where monuments and archaeological finds linked to the public and private life of ancient Rome are well preserved.
The city of Terni was a crossroads for the evangelising routes of Saint Benedict of Norcia and Saint Francis of Assisi; in the areas crossed by the Saints, places of worship were founded that are still fully active today. In memory of Saint Benedict we recall the Monastery of San Cassiano, founded by a community of Syrian monks in the green gorge of Stifone, near Narni, and the Abbey of San Benedetto in Fundis, near Stroncone, of which some ruins remain.
Examples of Franciscan buildings are the Church of San Francesco in Terni, where the followers of the Saint of Assisi settled at the end of the 1200s, the Convent of San Francesco in Stroncone, founded by the Saint of the same name, and the Sacro Speco, near Narni, an example of a Franciscan hermitage set into the mountain, still today a place of peace and silence for contemplation and peace of spirit.
