The story of Stifone and its springs began with a chance encounter with artist and archaeology enthusiast Alvaro Capone, a unique character who tells us about a sensational discovery.
Stifone, a small hamlet in the municipality of Narni, inhabited by 50 people, overlooks the Nera River. It has attracted attention due to a sensational discovery: a Roman or perhaps Etruscan port and a Roman-era shipyard. Its location was ideal for two reasons: being in the middle of a lush forest, making the raw material—wood—cost almost zero, and perhaps being the last navigable outpost of a river that a few kilometers later would become the Tiber.
Its location is close to what was the river port of ancient Narnia , some of the remains are still visible in the riverbed.
Towards the end of the 60s, the artist Alvaro Capone himself, having purchased an old mill on the Nera River, in the locality of Le Mole (in Nera Montoro di Narni), noticed, after a winter flood, that the river bed had cleared, revealing a large stone structure on the right bank, which he photographed.
That same year, Professor Caponi, enthused by the discovery of the port structures, which he had shown to a small circle of local friends, enthusiasts and scholars of anthropology and archaeology, continued his exploration of the site with them. This research soon led him to the discovery of another archaeological site, which, due to its proximity to the port and its characteristics, appeared to be a shipyard.
This is where the idea for the story of a hypothetical Roman ship, built in the Stifone shipyard, was born. It sailed along the Nera River, then up the Tiber to Rome and Ostia Antica, where it would meet the sea.
