The waters sung by Virgil and Carducci
Along the old Via Flaminia, between Trevi and Spoleto, in the municipality of Campello sul Clitunno, the Fonti del Clitunno are a place of enchanting, poetic beauty: a series of springs that gush from the ground under a pool of crystal-clear water, forming a small lake of incredible colours, from emerald green to turquoise, surrounded by weeping willows, poplars and cypresses, crossed by small wooden bridges and populated by ducks and swans. From here the river Clitunno flows towards the plain. The place has been considered sacred since ancient times: the Romans worshipped the river god Clitumnus here, with a temple and an oracle, and the white bulls that grazed along its banks, considered sacred, were used for sacrifices in Rome.
The springs have inspired poets and writers for two thousand years. Virgil, in the Georgics, praised the white herds of the Clitunno; Pliny the Younger described them in a famous letter; Lord Byron celebrated them in "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage"; and in 1876 the Italian poet Giosuè Carducci dedicated to them one of his most famous odes, "Alle fonti del Clitumno", which every Italian student has read. Today the springs are in a small park with paths along the water, a quiet, romantic place, especially in the early morning and in spring and autumn, when the colours of the trees are reflected in the water. A short distance away, the Tempietto del Clitunno, an early medieval church in the form of a Roman temple, is part of the UNESCO site of the Lombards.
Tip: visit in the morning, when the light is soft and there are few people; combine the springs with the Tempietto, a few hundred metres away.
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