The first stop to discover the sites of the Grand Tour in the Terni area is the medieval village of Cesi, nestled among olive trees on the ridge of Mount Torre Maggiore. In 1776, the English writer Lady Anne Miller remarked that, due to its elevated position, it was thought that the village was tied to the mountain by invisible adamantine chains.

Many travellers were drawn to Cesi, fascinated by the legends surrounding the Mount Eolo caves, where Virgil placed the dwelling of Aeolus, the God of the Winds, within its depths. The mountain is intersected by caves and tunnels, the most famous of which is Grotta Eolia, accessible from Palazzo Stocchi. Here, warm air flows out in winter, while in the summer, cool breezes emerge. Such a peculiar phenomenon inspired travelers’ imaginations, giving rise to various interpretations.For example, the English physician Edward Wright, in his 1721 visit, offered a detailed description of the cave and the winds that blow stronger in summer than in winter, claiming that the phenomenon originated from a different air density between the interior and exterior of the cave.

Joseph Jèrôme Lefrançais De Lalande, a French astronomer, in the account of his Journey made between 1765 and 1766, also claimed that the cool winds that came out of the caves were funnelled through channels into houses to chill wine, cellars and living spaces.

Although many of these explanations were of dubious scientific validity, they certainly contributed to the allure of the mysterious Eolia cave at Cesi.

Another stop on this journey through the memories of past travellers in the Terni area is Narni, the ancient town of Narnia, whose Latin name almost certainly inspired not only the writers of the Grand Tour, but also the author C. S. Lewis in his famous work, The Chronicles of Narnia.

Known for its cathedral and fortress, the town was also notable for being the birthplace of illustrious figures such as the Emperor Nerva and the celebrated military leader Erasmo da Narni, better known as the famous Gattamelata.

For Thomas Nugent, Narni represented the natural next stop after the Marmore Falls. The Irish scholar encouraged travellers to pause at the Augustus Bridge before entering a town that, in his words, compelled one “to go up and down continuously” because of its conformation.

Michel de Montaigne too, in his Journal of Montaigne’s Travels to Italy, describes Narni as a town perched on top of a cliff, while at its foot flows the river Nera, the Latin “Nar”, from which the town derives its name. Montaigne was particularly struck by a square adorned by a fountain, probably the 15th-century fountain of Piazza Garibaldi, rebuilt in 1527 and characterised by a bronze basin adorned with griffins, the symbol of the town (the original basin is kept at the local Eroli Museum). The French philosopher also admired the Cathedral of San Giovenale, but did not mention the Roman Bridge of Augustus, which fascinated many eighteenth-century writer sand numerous artists, including the renowned English painter William Turner.

During his trip to Italy in 1819, Turner visited southern Umbria to transform sketches he had made a few years earlier for a client into watercolours. Among the works he created on this occasion, in 1823 he dedicated a magnificent watercolour to the town titled Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, clearly inspired by Lord Byron’s diary, which depicts a glimpse of the Augustus Bridge in light and bright colours.

Richard Lassels also noted that just outside the town, one could see tall arches that once belonged to an aqueduct. In all likelihood, he was referring to the Formina aqueduct, built in the 1st century AD on the outskirts of Narni.

In addition to the Marmore Falls, travellers arriving in Terni were also captivated by the surrounding landscape.

In his Travel Journal (1580-1581), Michel de Montaigne described how “the gaze lingers, yes, on the olive groves around Terni”, describing a unique panorama shaped by rocky peaks and verdant woods that bewitched the minds of the most cultured and refined travellers of the time.

The Nera valley, dominated by the incessant flowing of the river, presented a striking natural tableau. Among the most poetic descriptions is the one by Thomas Nugent, who in the third volume of his Grand Tour writings(1756), compared the river to a “great silver snake”, an image that evokes the sinuous beauty of the Nera winding through the valley, yet also recalling, in part, the metaphor used by the German writer and poet Franz Wilhelm von Gaudy for the Marmore Falls, which appeared to him like a “dragon foaming with rage”.

500 metres downstream from the waterfall, another place drew the travellers’ attention: the Ponte del Toro, a monumental structure dating back to the Augustan era that crossed an artificial canal from the Marmore Plateau.

Not far away, the small and charming medieval village of Papigno also became a stop on the Journey. During his Terni visit in 1786, Goethe mentioned founding it very pleasant to observe this hilltop village in his work “Italian Journey” (1813-1817).

In 1826, Jean Baptiste Camille Corot spent three months in Papigno, hosted by the Counts Graziani in their villa. The painter created numerous works featuring the village at different times of the day. Perhaps Corot was also inspired by the “Enchanted Valley”, so much so that the production of oils and drawings made during this period is considered one of the most important moments in his experience of en plein air painting.

Marmore Falls became a Grand Tour icon, especially after Pope Clement VIII reopened the main drop in 1601, allowing the Velino river to plunge into the Nera river.

This natural spectacle had the power, to use the words dedicated to it in 1662 by the painter Salvatore Rosa, one of the first to admire the splendid scenery, to “bewitch every discontented mind with its frightful beauty”. An expression that underlines the overwhelming impact of the place, also used by Lord Byron in the poem “Falls of Terni”, in his narrative poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” (1812-1818). The English writer called the waterfall “horribly beautiful”, employing a learned oxymoron that recalls the Italian meaning of “orrido”, which means both “horrid” and “narrow gorge where the waters crash with a roar against the rock”.

Even artists and painters were captivated by the waterfall’s wild charm, a feat of Roman hydraulic engineering. Many artworks depicting this extraordinary place are now preserved in the world's most important museums. In Terni, the art collection of the Carit Foundation includes paintings, drawings and watercolours of the Falls, including the masterpiece created in 1678 by the German painter Philipp Peter Roos.

In 1670, the English writer Richard Lassels, in his work The Voyage of Italy, one of the first major texts on the Grand Tour, described Lake Piediluco and its village as an obligatory stop for the cultured travellers of the time. The crystal-clear waters of the lake “at the foot of the lucus”, a wood so sacred to the Romans that it was already celebrated in the Virgilian Aeneid, captivated the imagination of renowned writers such as Goethe and Byron.

During his stay in the Terni area, the French painter Corot immortalised the beauty of the lake in several splendid paintings: in 1826, he created an enchanting view of the lake nestled between the Luco and Caperno mountains, titled “Lake Piediluco, Umbria”, now preserved at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.