Italy, Fiano Romano

Fiano Romano is a town in Lazio on via Tiberina north of Rome, at about 100 meters above sea level. The municipality includes a hilly area and a vast and fertile plain on the right bank of the Tiber. In imperial times it was an important river port. Durin the dark ages of the Barbarian invasions, in the countryside the church represented the only authority, which was then consolidated in the fifth century with the founding of the Benedictine monasteries. Fiano (Fundus Fianus or Flavianus or Flaganus) was included in the Province called "The Teverina" under the diocese of Porto, which was controlled by the Benedictine Monks of St. Paul. In 1081, a bull of Pope Gregory VII recognized the "Castellum" Flaianum owned by the monastery of St. Paul. In 1139, the abbot of St. Paul went to Pope Innocent III to protest the usurpation of the Castle by Tybalt heirs from Cencio. Later, Pope Alexander III and Emperor Frederick I and Henry IV confirmed with official acts the rights of the Benedictines of St. Paul of Fiano. Later (1300), the Orsini acquired about half of Fiano; The descendants of Paolo Orsini then sold Fiano with Morley and Monte la Guardia, for 10,000 guilders to the Colonna family, who did not remain long in Fiano, as in 1443 Fiano and Scorano were divided between the Monastery of St. Paul and Orso Orsini. At Fiano Romano was rebuilt the abbey for the film The Name of the Rose, based on the novel of Umberto Eco the Italian semiologist (student of signs). Fiano Romano is the city of Rocca Secca in the 1963 film The Honourable where Toto makes his speech to the population.