Continuing on the Via Flaminia, and passing Foligno and Spoleto along the route, we encounter what are perhaps the most famous and magical springs in all of Umbria: The Springs of Clitunnus. Praised in song by Pliny the Younger, Virgil, Propertius, and in more recent times by Byron and Carducci, the springs were a sacred site in ancient Roman times and were dedicated to the god Clitunnus, who gave his prophetic oracles from here. In this place they held what were known as the “clitunnals”, which were prophetic sessions that even Emperor Caligula was said to have frequented. According to legend, if white bulls were bathed in the spring’s waters, they would emerge even more candidly white than when they arrived, in this mystical place, where nature’s complexity is revealed. The water emerges from multiple fissures in the rocks, the sands bubble at the bottom of the lake, which is surrounded by weeping willows and poplar trees which dot the smaller islands. Today it is a park which is carefully maintained, but in the time of ancient Rome it was an important resort which was colored by the many patrician villas, public and aristocratic baths, and even a hotel.