Overview
Orange Flag of the Touring Club Italiano
The Municipality of Portico e San Benedetto includes three very interesting and charming villages (Portico di Romagna, Bocconi, and San Benedetto in Alpe) immersed in the National Park of the Casentino Forests, Monte Falterona, and Campigna, an area of great natural significance.
Portico di Romagna has preserved its urban structure, still consisting of three distinct levels (reflecting social hierarchies), with charming pedestrian passages linking them. On the rocky spur of Girone, there is the oldest part of the settlement, with sections of defensive walls and fortifications. Notable sites include the Church of S. Maria in Girone, originally built in the year 1000 but completely rebuilt in 1776, the Compagnia Church, where an image of the Madonna of the Blood by Lorenzo di Credi is venerated, the Portinari Palace from the 14th century, with a portal and rusticated openings, and the Ponte delle Maestà, a sixteenth-seventeenth-century arch bridge offering a beautiful panoramic view of the village. The area is also linked to Dante: the tradition holds that the Portinari Palace belonged to the father of Dante's beloved Beatrice, while the suggestive Acquacheta Waterfall is mentioned in Canto XVI of the Inferno.
San Benedetto in Alpe, on the other hand, owes its name to a Benedictine monastery founded in 853, which today houses a beautiful crypt. Bocconi is the smallest village, but no less interesting: it is worth checking out the Vigiacli Tower (the guards' tower) dating from the 15th-16th century, the Ponte della Brusia, a three-arched bridge, the medieval Bastia village, and the Valpiana Chestnut Grove.
Among the typical products of the area, forest and undergrowth fruits are certainly worth mentioning, celebrated during the popular autumn festivals in the first Sundays of the season. Other events include Portico il Paese dei Presepi between December and January, San Benedetto at the Inn in San Benedetto in Alpe, and the Porcino Mushroom Festival in Bocconi.
The territory of the three villages remains lively and active today, thanks in part to the presence of virtuous, often young, initiatives: such as Al Vecchio Convento (accommodation, dining, experiences, courses, and excursions), the San Rocco kiosk (dining), the artistic ceramics of Lucia Gennaretti, the recovery of forgotten vineyards by Andrea Peradotto, the Vignale Hostel and Restaurant, forest fruits processed by the Alpe Silente farm, and the authentic flavors of La Beccona restaurant.
In Spanish:
47010 Portico E San Benedetto FC, Italia
