240px, Entrance of the Roman tunnel. The Furlo Pass (Italian: ''Gola del Furlo'' or ''Passo del Furlo'') is a

gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cu ...

on the ancient Roman road

Via Flaminia The Via Flaminia or Flaminian Way was an ancient Roman road leading from Rome over the Apennine Mountains to ''Ariminum'' ( Rimini) on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and due to the ruggedness of the mountains was the major option the Romans ha ...

in the

Marche Marche ( , ) is one of the twenty regions of Italy. In English, the region is sometimes referred to as The Marches ( ). The region is located in the central area of the country, bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the ...

region of central

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, where it passes near the

Candigliano The Candigliano is a river in the Marche and Umbria regions of Italy. Its source is in the Appennino Umbro-Marchigiano mountains in the province of Pesaro e Urbino near the border with the province of Perugia. The river flows east and forms the ...

river, a tributary of the

Metauro The Metauro is a river in the Marche region of central Italy. It rises in the Apennine Mountains and runs east for or if the Meta is included as its uppermost reach. The name of the river in Latin is ''Metaurus'' or ''Mataurus.'' In Ancient ...

. The gorge was formed between the Pietralata (889 m) and Paganuccio (976 m) mountains by the river Candigliano, which whooshed in full spate through the district until it was dammed in 1922. Since 2001 it has been included in a State Natural Reserve of the same name. It is often marketed to tourists in the region as the "Grand Canyon of Italy." The Roman emperor

Vespasian Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Emp ...

had a tunnel built here to facilitate passage on the Via Flaminia at the narrowest point of the gorge (hence the name, from the Latina ''forulum'', meaning "small hole"). Next to it is a similar but smaller tunnel dating from Etruscan times. The tunnel has a length of 38.30 meters and a height of 5.95 meters. During the Gothic Wars (6th century), the Ostrogoth King

Totila Totila, original name Baduila (died 1 July 552), was the penultimate King of the Ostrogoths, reigning from 541 to 552 AD. A skilled military and political leader, Totila reversed the tide of the Gothic War, recovering by 543 almost all the t ...

had the pass fortified, but his troops were ousted by the Roman general

Belisarius Belisarius (; el, Βελισάριος; The exact date of his birth is unknown. – 565) was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under the emperor Justinian I. He was instrumental in the reconquest of much of the Mediterranean terr ...

. The

Lombards The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...

conquered the pass between 570 and 578, and destroyed the fortifications. In the following centuries Via Flaminia was nearly abandoned. In 1502 Lucrezia Borgia used it on a journey to Ferrara and in 1506 Julius II took the road on his way to Bologna. In the beginning of the 18th century the transit remained difficult and dangerous, and only in 1776 was the tunnel and the road re-opened. Between May 23 and June 12, 1849, soldiers of the Roman Republic, commanded by Colonel L. Pianciani, fought a skirmish in the pass with the Austrian army. During the Second World War, the Gorge experienced moments of tension, but it was not the scene of fierce clashes. The seventies saw increasing destruction of the natural beauty of the surrounding landscape, as well as the deterioration of the road, due to the intense activity in quarries located within the Gorge. Furlo Gola

In the 1930s, a profile of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in ...

was sculpted on the slopes of Mount Pietralata by a local branch of the Guardia Forestale (

State Forestry Corps The State Forestry Corps (Italian: ''Corpo forestale dello Stato'' or ''CFS'') was a national police agency in Italy. It was established on 15 October 1822 by Charles Felix of Sardinia as Amministrazione forestale per la custodia e la vigilanza ...

), which was destroyed by partisans during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. In the 1980s, traffic in the Furlo tunnel was bypassed by the construction of two highway tunnels.

External links

Official Website
{{coord, 43.638786, N, 12.713713, E, source:eswiki_region:IT_type:landmark, format=dms, display=title Landforms of the Marche Ancient Roman buildings and structures in Italy Buildings and structures in le Marche Transport in le Marche Canyons and gorges of Italy