Narni

In 1979 six young cavers pushed through a blocked opening in a garden and found a twelfth-century church with frescoes, a Roman cistern, and beyond them a room whose walls were covered in graffiti cut by prisoners of the Inquisition, including a large symbolic composition by one man identified from archive records. Narni Sotterranea now runs tours through these spaces. Above ground the town holds a Romanesque cathedral, a Rocca Albornoziana on the hill and a Roman bridge in the valley. Narni's Roman name, Narnia, was taken from an old atlas by C.S. Lewis for his fictional country.

What you actually see

• The prisoner graffiti - inquisition cell walls cut with symbols and names.
• The hidden church - a frescoed twelfth-century chapel found in 1979.
• The Roman cistern - a vaulted water tank under the town.
• The Narnia link - the town's Roman name borrowed by C.S. Lewis.

When to go

April to October; underground tours run mainly at weekends outside high season and must be booked. The Corsa all'Anello festival fills the town in May.

Honest expectations

The underground is seen only on a guided tour with fixed times, mostly weekends off season. It is cool and damp below. The Narnia connection is a name, nothing more.

Nearby

Marmore Falls lie east; Todi is north.