Take Me Back, Verucchio

Years ago, when I sat at the dinner table with my in-laws, and the meal was done, and the talk was loud and fun, every now and then my father-in-law would point at my wife, often waving at her with a table knife in hand, and say, “Ma te sei come la Zia Violenta.” You’re like Aunt Violent. And we would laugh. An aunt named Violent? It seemed improbable. I don’t remember anyone saying, Her name was what? We just accepted it. She must have been one of his old old aunts.  

Which brings me to Verucchio. 

Verucchio is just minutes from San Marino Città, “un salto,” they would say in Italian, a hop-skip-and-a-jump. If you’ve just taken a tour of the three towers and had lunch at da Giulio in Ventoso, in ten minutes you can drive down the very scenic winding road and join Strada Provinciale 32, which takes you up into that lovely little hill town. 

This part of Romagna is dotted with hill towns, most of them with a fortress, most of which are associated with the Malatesta family. The Malatesta were “condottieri,” one of the puissant families and factions from roughly 1350 through 1650, military powers that fought for control of local real estate, aligned with either the Pope (the Guelfs) or with the Emperor (the Ghibellines).  The history is complicated, beginning with the Concordat of Worms and involving a German Roman emperor named Lothair III.  

In Verucchio you find one of the best preserved fortresses, with a tour that is well worth the price of admission. From the yard, the view of Verucchio rooftops and San Marino in the distance is wonderful. At the edge of the property, the prison and jail cells are accessible.

Inside the fortress, at one end of the great dining hall is the Malatesta family tree, where we saw recorded the name Violante Malatesta, born 1298 into the Este family, daughter of Obizzo III. She would have been married into the Malatesta family with the purpose of cementing power relations. (What did love have to do with it?) Violante, not Violenta. Centuries later in Verucchio, where the Canducci then lived, there must have been a tradition of naming children for the old Malatesta Violante.

But today we came to Verucchio to visit the archeological museum. Verucchio is one of two sites in Romagna where burial plots of the Villanova population were found, the other site being closer to Bologna. The Villanova (900-700 BC) were there before the Etruscans, at the beginning of the iron age. Their dead were cremated and buried in urns. More than 600 graves were found in Verucchio, with hundreds of artifacts. 

If you’ve just had lunch, you will want a good walk. We parked just below town on the San Marino side. It’s a five minute walk, gently uphill, to the main (and the only) piazza, where you’ll first see the road rising to the right with signs for the fortress, and crossing the piazza, staying to the right, a stairway rising to the fortress. You can drive up to the fortress, but be warned that it’s a test of nerves and your facility with the clutch if your car has a manual transmission. The views up there, in all directions, are breath-taking.

The archeological museum is straight through the piazza and down the road on the right. Even if you’re not a museum person, take the road toward the museum. This is residential Verucchio. You will hear voices. You might see one car. Just before the first arch, which a car can barely pass through, you can jog to the left and walk along the edge of town, with the Marecchia River valley stretching out in the distance and across the valley, the town of Torriana. Is there a fortress up there? You bet there is. Above Torriana, another village called Montebello. Fortress? Yes. And in Montebello, another fortress tour worth the price of admission. 

In both Torriana and Montebello, you will eat well.  Remember, you are in Italy.

Today, having done our museum walk before lunch, from Verucchio we drove down to Villa Verucchio and ate at Ro e Bunì. Local food in what was a 16th century mill The mill is still there.  On the road into the restaurant (also named for the farm, Tenuta Amalia), you pass persimmon trees and, so out of place, so 20th century, the turn you take to get to the golf course. Time marches on.

Where to eat:
Ro e Bunì. Via Molino Bianco 836, 47826 Villa Verucchio Italy. +39 0541 678484
I Malardot. Via Castello, 35, 47825 Poggio Torriana RN, Italy. 0541675194
Osteria del Borgo. X9C8+7Q Montebello, Province of Rimini, Italy. 0541675444