I borghi più belli d'Italia
The goal of our Club, which was not created merely as an integrated tourist promotional operation, is to guarantee - through protection, restoration, promotion and utilization - the preservation of a great heritage of monuments and memories that would otherwise be irretrievably lost. http://www.borghitalia.it/
Italian little Italies: Borgo Valsugana. The Little Venice of Trentino
Characteristic of the village of Borgo are the wide arcades, similar to those in some river towns in the Veneto region, which allow pleasant walks along the Brenta River. A particular feature of the area along Brenta is the Venetian Bridge. The striking 15th-century bridge, crowned by two aedicules containing graffiti inspired by two precious 17th-...
Italian little Italies: Castelvecchio di Rocca Barbena, the sentinel village of the Neva Valley
Castelvecchio is the first and most beautiful of the walled villages of Val Neva, wrapped in a circle around the castle that dominates it. The castle was built by the Clavesana family in the 11th century, when the place was still called Vallis Cohedani, a mysterious toponym that identified one of the main "salt routes," capable of connecting the Pi...
Italian little Italies: Gerace, the Cliff on which the Sparrow-hawk came to rest
You can reach Gerace along State Road 111, about 10 Km. from Locri. As the town is made up of different plateaux linked by good roads, it is recommended to visit on foot in order to enjoy better its numerous architectural gems. You can begin your visit from the “Borgo Maggiore”, where the ancient town gate of the “Varvara” and the pottery master’s...
Italian little Italies: Sabbioneta The ideal city of the Renaissance
Enlightenment scholars called Sabbioneta “the little Athens of the Po”, considering it as the true Renaissance “ideal city”, it is actually a “little Rome” created by the maecenas prince Vespasiano Gonzaga Colonna on the model of ancient Roman cities. Vespasiano, being viceroy of Navarre, had already designed the citadel of Pamplona in Spain, and w...
Italian little Italies: Barga, the Cypresses of Arringo over the Valley of Poetry
The urban structure of Barga has remained more or less that of the time of the Commune (12th-14th cent.), with a tangled network of streets running between the irregular buildings. One enters the village through Porta Reale and Via del Pretorio, crossed by narrow lanes and cart-roads. Past the first square is the Conservatorio di Sant’Elisabetta, a...
Italian little Italies: Cison di Valmarino, Veneto villas and prosecco vineyards
The borgo of Cison di Valmarino is dominated by the Brandolini castle (today a luxury hotel), called in the middle ages Castrum Costae. The fortified complex (XII century) was transformed by Brandolini with the addition of the Renaissance wing and the building of the external walls and ramparts. It was Antonio Maria Brandolini, who died in 1530, to...
Italian little Italies: Pacentro. Return to the Middle Ages
The mountains press against Pacentro to the point of reducing its horizon, but in compensation they shelter the Borgo from the fury of the winds. The woods oxygenate the air and water gushes fresh water from the numerous springs of the Maiella. To the west, the sky over Pacentro widens, and the view sweeps over the Peligna Valley. At the summit of...
Italian little Italies: Compiano, The village of wanderers
Compiano stands on a rocky spur rising on the left bank of the Taro River, in Emilia Romagna but wedged between Liguria and Tuscany. The ancient village is dominated by a castle whose origins are uncertain: restoration work carried out in 1994, however, uncovered buildings dating back to before the eighth century A.D.. In later years the expansion...
Italian little Italies: Sambuca di Sicilia. The fortress of Al-Zabut
The town's urban development follows two lines: the Arab one "inside the walls," which is projected through the sixteenth century with the thickening of residences around the fortress of Zabut, and the seventeenth-eighteenth-century one "outside the walls," with the town hall acting as a hinge. The tour begins at the 19th-century L'Idea theater at...
Italian little Italies: Valvasone Arzene. Small ancient world
The urban center of Valvasone developed on the right bank of the Tagliamento River in the Friulian plain, near an ancient ford. We begin our visit from the Town Hall, a stately building with an 18th-century appearance that overlooks Piazza Mercato, incorporating earlier medieval structures. Opposite, Palazzo Martinuzzi-Dulio does not hide its Venet...
Italian little Italies: Mondolfo. An Adriatic fortress
The heart of the Borgo is the large central square dominated by the Town Hall, which was built with the civic tower in neo-gothic style in 1931. Next to it, the parish church of Santa Giustina, already attested in 1290, was renovated and elected a Collegiate Church by Pope Urban VIII in 1635. In the elegant cantoria located above the main entrance,...
Italian little Italies: Summonte. The wine port of the Romans
The grange (ancient barn) of Santa Maria del Preposito is the most important element of Summonte territory. It dates back to the tenth century and was sold in exchange to the abbey of Montevergine around 1174, from 1229 became the aggregation of the new Fontanelle farmhouse. The monastic structure has promoted the cultivation of chestnut, vine, oli...