"Gli Appennini sono per me un pezzo meraviglioso del creato. Alla grande pianura della regione padana segue una catena di monti che si eleva dal basso per chiudere verso sud il continente tra due mari (....) è un così bizzarro groviglio di pareti montuose a ridosso l'una dall'altra; spesso non si può nemmeno distinguere in che direzione scorre l'acqua."
J. W. Goethe, Viaggio in Italia (1786 - 1788)
The castles and, more over, the abbeys were cultural centers of first order: it’s enough to think about the development of artistic abilities, in particular picture and sculpture, in these hermitic places; without forgetting the conservation and traduction of ancient manuscripts or thecreation and diffusionof theological, philosophical and letterary operas.

Who wants to perceive this enormous heritage just need to go up to one of these abbeys to bewilder his spirit in front of such a huge mole of works over which many famous artistsput their hands, like Cimabue and Giotto, the Dellarobbia, Michelangelo, Beato Angelico, Andrea Del Castagno, operas from the school of Florence, and Emilia, and in the construction of estates there are celebre masons like the Comacini brothers.

Between the important buildings left by the civilizations succeeded in the last 3000 years of history, I remember the Etruscan city of Misa where, other than theplanimetryof the city and the rests of the walls and small objects where found everywhere. At this point I want to mention the recoveries in Marzabotto.

The Romans left in our valleys, besides theroad of theFuta and of the Porettana, the roads Flaminia Minor and Flaminia Minor Militare which moved from Arezzo, passing Scarperia, going up to the Futa Pass and from there the mount Bastione, Monzuno, Brento, arriving in Bologna.

An hydraulic work of remarkable importance left bythe Romans is the acqueduct that collects the very pure waters of the river Setta thet leads for a length of 20 Km to the city of Bologna.

Don Evaristo Stefanelli
Article written for this site


Falciatrice trainata dai buoi
Foto di Piccirilli Emilio