North of Lake Trasimeno in the Italian region of Umbria, near the battlefields of the Second Punic War, a tower leans perilously in the woods above the village of Vernazzano. The tower is among the few visible structures that still remain from a prosperous and sprawling medieval village that once called the region home. The village was progressively abandoned during the 18th-century as a result of the area’s ongoing erosion. Originally constructed along an ancient road in the foothills above Lake Trasimeno, the fortified site controlled the lake’s northern shores…
