On March 6th, the Giornata Nazionale delle Ferrovie Dimenticate will take place throughout  Italy. The event focuses on all of the country's small abandoned railway stations.  It aims to retrieve the forgotten railways by re-establishing the train service, with attention to environmental protection, or creating green itineraries to be visited on foot, by bike or on horseback.

The one in our town, ex Ferrovia Spoleto-Norcia, was considered an engineering masterpiece due to the 51 km mountainous terrain it traversed.  Imagined in 1919, built in 1926 and abandoned in 1968, it is considered a forgotten railway even though it is one of the most striking and charming trails for walking and biking in all of Umbria.

Despite the fact that this was a masterpiece of engineering, a different engineering masterpiece- the automobile- led to its ultimate demise.

This weekend we will retrace history by attending organized excursions, visiting our local railway museum, and meandering the no longer used, but certainly not forgotten, railway of Spoleto.