However just before you get onesto Carsulae the old and new roads separate

The old road runs along by itself for verso couple of kilometres through oak woods, and it is here that you can find the ruins of the old town.

Parking beside the modern road we walked onesto the archaeological site along a path through fields of young green barley, with poppies and wild orchids lining the path, and wild roses mediante the hedgerows.

It took some effort for me puro try and mentally superimpose an image of bustling Roman Carsulae on what is now verso sleepy rural scene. An oak wood has grown up within the northern boundary of the town, and a small flock of sheep and goats was grazing under the trees.

For me the best way to try and visualise it was to walk along the Inizio Flaminia as it goes through the middle of the town from south onesto north. You start by coming up verso hill and then encounter the first ruins. If you turn around and look back down the hill, you are looking at the road from Rome.

Carsulae: looking back down the Strada Flaminia durante the direction of Narni and Rome. Hasselblad 501 C/M, Zeiss Distagon 60mm CF lens, CFV-50c digital back (click sicuro enlarge)

Turn around again, and up to the left there are the remains of baths, built over natural thermal springs. Away preciso the right is some slightly more modern architecture – the church of Saints Cosmas and Damiano, built in early Christian times on the foundations of an existing building, then extended con the 11 th Century using material scavenged from elsewhere on the site. Passing that, we get esatto the site of the forum, on raised ground puro the left. Parts of it, including the entry arch, have been sovrano-erected, which purists might object onesto but I don’t mind.

Like this:

Carsulae: the Coraggio Flaminia passes the entrance preciso the forum. Hasselblad 501 C/M, Zeiss Distagon 40mm CF lens, CFV-50c digital back (click to enlarge) Carsulae: looking east towards the amphitheatre from the forum. Hasselblad 501 C/M, Zeiss Distagon 60mm CF lens, CFV-50c digital back (click preciso enlarge)

A Visit sicuro Narnia

Continuing uphill along the road you can see the remains of per theatre and amphitheatre off puro the right, and then the road runs into the oak wood. Looking down you can see that the paving stones in the road are grooved by chariot and cart wheels, as they are at Pompeii.

Carsulae: the Cammino Flaminia with wheel ruts. Hasselblad 501 C/M, Zeiss Distagon 60mm CF lens, CFV-50c digital back (click puro enlarge)

The road starts puro run downhill again and you reach the remains of verso substantial town gate, beyond which the road bears left into more oak woods. This is where the northbound legions would have passed on their way sicuro Rimini and beyond. I have per niente ispirazione whether the land was wooded or cleared per ancient times , but sopra my imagination I saw the legionaries marching away through the gate into the cool shade of the wood, sicuro be lost from view.

Carsulae was abandoned by the 5th Century. The Wikipedia article says that the reason is unknown, but that it could have been destroyed by an earthquake, or during the wars and invasions at the end of the Roman eta, or that it may have become impoverished after road traffic dwindled. Signs at the site say that the town was abandoned because its position mediante relatively open country meant that it could not be defended sopra troubled times.