Fri, Aug 7, 2020, 11:30 PM – Sat, Aug 8, 2020, 1:00 AM CEST. 75 minutes lecture. 15 minutes Q & A. The webinar will take place online through Google Meet. The webinar is $10 for all Filitalia members and non members. RSVP is required, so please reserve your ticket online. REGISTER HERE

Join Angela Cacciarru and learn about this unusual place in the Emilia Romagna region. The Pietra di Bismantova is a unique “Magic Mountain”, a unique geological formation in the territory of the town of Castelnovo ne' Monti in Central Italy, about 28 miles from Reggio Emilia or an hour’s drive from Modena. Stunning geographically, it also has an air of magic and mystery famous in legends and local folklore.

It is considered a sacred and mysterious mountain since ancient times. It looks like a huge rock in a striking formation: a massive block of limestone, on top of which lies a vast grassy flat plateau of almost 30 acres.

It is located in the Appennino Tosco-Emiliano National Park and it is among its most renowned symbols. Singer-songwriter Giovanni Lindo Ferretti once described the old, flat mountain as a “Cyclopic altar, extended towards the sky.” And the famous Italian poet Dante Alighieri used “Bismantova” as a toponym, a special place name with deep significance, in his “Divine Comedy”.

If you want to know more about this mysterious mountain, and do a virtual trek up magical paths that lead to the beautiful wide plateau, please join us for a thrilling virtual adventure. You will admire the breathtaking view from the top, and you will feel close to the sky above and deeply connected to our common home: the Earth.

About Angela Cacciarru: Angela was born and raised in Italy, and has more than twenty years of experience as an instructor of Italian language and culture. She got her BA in Economics from the University of Cagliari, in Sardinia, where she also collaborated with a poetry magazine as an editor and author.

She left Italy in 1990, and, since then, has developed an extensive international and multidisciplinary teaching background in the United States, Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. She became an United States citizen in 2004.

Her knowledge of Human Geography, her academic specialty since her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been important in diversifying and broadening the content of her classes.