The selected territory corresponds to the 1/25,000th maps of the Istituto Geografico Militare Italiano: 130 I NO, 130 I NE, 130 I SW, 130 I SE, 130 II NO, 130 II NE. It is delimited to north by the town of Deruta, to the south by the town of Todi. The current landscape is marked by numerous settlements from the medieval period controlling the middle Tiber valley, often established on older, higher sites.Since protohistory, the middle Tiber valley has been a dynamic crossroads whose roles and functions have often been multiple and changing border between Umbrians to the east and Etruscans to the west, western limit of Regio VI Umbria in the 1st century. after C.E., then part of the Byzantine corridor linking Rome to Ravenna. From 751, it was integrated into the Heritage of Saint-Pierre.Both a natural but fluid border and an axis of communication, the possibilities ofnavigation of the Tiber, both from upstream to downstream as well as from downstream to upstream, are documented by ancient sources since the 1st century. av. AD: Pliny the Elder (NH, III, 53-55), Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Ant. Rom. III, 44, 1) and Strabo (Geography, V, 2-3) had underlined the double aspect of Tiberine navigation.The Tiber was then a navigable riverup to Rome by sea vessels, while the upstream section was the domain ofriver boats.Until the 19th century, the Tiber was still used to transport goods, both to go down it bringing agricultural products (cereals, olives, wine, vegetables and livestock) to Rome and to go up it by oar or by tow pulled by men or animals (replaced by steamboats).
