An Umbrian hill-town now has reason to celebrate something that they have long suspected: that C.S. Lewis took the name of the town known as Narnia to use for the name of the fictional world in the Chronicles.
They have received proof by way of C.S. Lewis’s former personal secretary and biographer, Walter Hooper, who has given Giuseppe Fortunati a copy of a Latin atlas of Italy that belonged to Lewis. In it, he had underlined Narnia.
The Italian premiere of Disney’s “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” will be the opening film at the first Fiuggi Family Festival, organizers announced Tuesday.
The late summer festival — based in the historic hilltop village of Fiuggi, just outside Rome — is dedicated to family-oriented films. It will take place July 28-Aug. 3.
The festival was announced last year, organizers said, in part to help combat the trend toward violent and explicit films.
The rest of the lineup will be revealed in the coming weeks.
Narni, some 50 miles north of Rome, was until recently just one of many pretty mediaeval hill-towns dotted around Umbria.
But the recent release of The Chronicles of Narnia, the Disney film based on a 1950 children’s book by CS Lewis, has given the town and its picturesque cobbled streets fresh appeal.
Despite having little in common with Narnia, a land inhabited by dwarfs, talking animals and a witch, Narni is making the most of a possible link with the magical land described in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
The mayor’s office is busy working out ‘Narnia’ guided tours, a Narnia carnival is planned for the spring and shop windows in the town are full of displays inspired by the new film.
Even the town’s school children are fully clued up, having read and studied the book in class.
“We’re hoping our link with CS Lewis’s world can be the start of something new and positive for Narni,” said Giuseppe Fortunati, a local author who has written a book exploring the connections between the real and imaginary places.
“The film has got a lot of people interested in the town and fans are starting to visit, in order to see the place that Narnia is based on,” he added.
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