While it may be easy to recognize that the name Caspian could have been a reference to the Caspian Sea in our world, did you ever realize that there is a real town in Italy that bears the name Narnia? This town is even older than Rome and for over 2000 years was known by the name Narnia. It was only after 1870 when the name was changed to Narni.
Could this be a coincidence or was C.S. Lewis really inspired by this small Italian town? His personal secretary Walter Hooper thinks so because in 2009 he presented a Latin atlas of Italy where C.S. Lewis underlined the word Narnia. What was it about the Italian town of Narnia could have caught his attention?
Like land of The Chronicles of Narnia the Italian town of Narnia is also full of castles and medieval imagery. No this is not Cair Paravel, but it is a real Narnian castle Rocca di Albornoz from the 14th century.
These pictures of Narnia’s medieval re-enactments taking place in April-May and June look just like scenes I would expect to see from BBC’s Chronicles of Narnia TV Movies.
If you do visit Narnia, be sure to save time for wardrobe shopping because you never know what you might discover…
Sources:
http://www.italymagazine.com/italy/places/real-life-narnia-inspired-author
Narnia is not exactly “full of castles”. Compare it to the UK where there are hundreds of the things.