Pretare

Fairyland

In the province of Ascoli Piceno, you will encounter the Marche municipality of Arquata del Tronto and one of its most beautiful hamlets, Pretare. Here you can still admire the remains of a kiln that processed limestone - from which the village's name may have come - to produce quicklime. Near Pretare, along the Fosso delle Pianelle, there is also an old water mill that has been restored and converted into a dwelling with Art Nouveau details.

This place has something suggestive and fairytale-like about it. Not surprisingly, legend has it that fairies inhabited the not too distant Grotta della Sibilla. On their way to Pretare, the fairies met some local youths and stayed too long with them to dance. Fearing dawn would catch them, they fled so quickly that they left their footprints on the mountain, thus creating a road on the side of Monte Vettore, the highest peak in the Marche region. Every year in August, a play inspired by the legend is staged.