| Description: |
The heart of the village lies at an altitude of 600 ms, but its territory keeps extanding further up above sea-level, reaching 800 mts at Passo di Colfiorito, on the Umbrian border, across a land of astonishing naturalistic value, in the typical landscape of the Chienti valley, a river that starts its journey here.
In this area once stood the charming Roman town of Plestia, but currently no elements allow the dating of whe few relics that remain. It is on this very soil skirting Plestino Lake that Hannibal and his Carthaginese, after their victory in the battle of Lake of Trasimeno (217 B.C.), utterly defeated a last garrison of 5000 roman soldiers, partly belonging to the Corte Picena. Legend has it that Hannibal himself left here his armour in honor of the extraordinary courage proved by the defeated enemies. The lake was drained in the XV century by the Da Varano family through a masterpiece of engineering still existing today: the ´Botte dei Varano´ (‘Varano’s barrel’). What remains of that period are large sections of the city walls that were considered to be the easternmost defensive outpost towards the Umbria region, especially in the hamlet named Castello.
The impressive great upland plain of Colfiorito, partly subsumed within the boundaries of the Municipality, is a remarkable naturalistic treasure for its small lakes and for its wildlife, especially herons, and its rare floral and vegetational species.
Text by Fabio Santilli
Translation by Gianfranco Martorano |