Image courtesy of Wikimedia
This walk is part of the first leg (Cesi to Portaria) on a long path designated as “Martani Trekking”.
A narrow road that leads from Cesi to Monte Torre Maggiore (see below) passes the abandoned church of Sant’ Onofrio (17th century). This church, which is dedicated to
St Onuphrius, the patron saint of Cesi, was built on the site of an ancient Benedictine monastery.
The road leads to the isolated church of
Sant’ Erasmo, after about 4 km (the last kilometer of which is not surfaced). This church stands on a terrace supported by polygonal walls (5th-4th century BC). In his description
of Umbria, the Augustinian Sixth Region,
Natural History (Book 3, Chapter 19), Pliny the Elder added: “In this district there exist no longer the Feliginates who possessed Clusiolum, above Interamna”. Some scholars have identified this terrace as the site of Clusiolum.
Nearby are:
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✴the Osservatorio Astronomico “Paolo Bellelli”; and
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✴a five-sided tower that formed part of the Rocca di Cesi (11th century). Porta Todi and Porta Terni (see the
Walk around Cesi) stand on the sites of other towers that also formed part of these fortifications and there were at least four more of which no trace survives. From 1198, the Rocca di Cesi was the key to the defense of the so-called Terre Arnolfe.
The unsurfaced road continues for another 2.5 km and you can then follow a path to see the remains of the ancient temples of
Monte Torre Maggiore.
