A Mine of Joy in the Val di Nure: a Holiday at the Casa delle Favole in Ferriere

If a few centuries ago we had asked for directions to Ferriere, the Ligurians would have told us that we simply had to follow the bread road, while the people of Piacenza would have told us to take the oil road. Pilgrims coming from every corner of the world would have pointed us to the Via Francigena, while if by misfortune we had ended up in these parts in 1484, we would have met the furious troops of the Nicelli, lords of the upper Val Nure, who, tired of being ignored by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, decided to press their claim on the precious iron mines of the place by launching an armed assault on the medieval castle on the knoll overlooking the Grondana stream.

The beauty of this wild landscape, dominated by the snow-capped peaks of the Ligurian-Emilian Apennines, carved by fast-flowing watercourses, chiefly that of the Nure stream, and studded with sudden rocks, woods rich in wildlife and glacial lakes, had struck humans since prehistoric times. The first peoples to settle in these parts were the Iron Age Ligurians, followed by the Romans. In a sense, though, the Iron Age never ended here: from the 12th century, when the scarcity of iron in Europe led rulers to exploit the area's mines, ironworking, from which the village evidently takes its name, became of primary importance.

Today you need only visit the Museo delle Ferriere, in the very central piazza of the same name, to retrace the history of those long centuries during which many men of the area spent their days in the dark, working hard in the bowels of the earth, while the women made charcoal. The territory was ideal for this activity also thanks to its immense woods; indeed, at Ferriere there were two blast furnaces and fourteen hammers, bellows and millraces, and a real miners' village grew up. From the 1800s, mining entered a phase of decline, and little by little the village discovered it had a different mine of resources, usable without having to go underground. In place of iron dust there is today the very clean air of the Val di Nure, and the narrow black paths have given way to green hiking trails immersed in unspoilt nature.

The black metal is spoken of only metaphorically, in reference to the iron health of those who frequent this authentic, pollution-free territory. We chose to spend a short holiday in Ferriere for precisely this reason: we were looking for a place not too far from the city — here we are about fifty kilometres from Piacenza — where we could forget the stress of the metropolis and give ourselves up to a regenerating calm. After a wander through the historic centre, we head for our lodgings for this long weekend: the Casa delle Favole, an original scattered hotel in the Perotti locality. We are in one of those places whose name perfectly reflects its essence: the Casa delle Favole stands in an old village where everything has a fairy-tale charm, starting with the houses that make up the scattered hotel.

Each apartment is named after an inhabitant of the nearby woods: there is the house of the badger, of the fox, of the swallow, of the squirrel and even of the weasel and the wolf. There is no risk of getting it wrong: a nice plaque with a drawing of the animal in question beside each front door helps you find your way easily. Welcoming us with great kindness into this enchanted world is Mr Alessandro, the owner who runs the place with the help of his parents, Mr Giampaolo and Mrs Mariuccia, and his uncle Giuseppe. "We started doing up these old houses in the village thirteen years ago, but the idea of creating a scattered hotel was born in 2010 and we opened the following year. The first houses were the fox's, the badger's and the squirrel's.

To create a scattered hotel under the Emilia-Romagna regional regulations you have to be in a historic centre and have all the lodgings within a three-hundred-metre radius of the central building of the hotel — in our case the house of the falcon, where we have the reception and the breakfast room. The other fundamental rule is that the lodgings must not be built from scratch, but be restored original buildings," Alessandro explains as he takes us inside this lovely Aesop's fable. "The other houses were then gradually added, and today we have seven little houses with a kitchen and an eighth four-storey house, with as many en-suite rooms, ideal for those staying just one or two nights," he adds.

The place makes you dream not only because of the fairy-tale animals, but also thanks to the old-time atmospheres that make these little houses, dating from about 200 years ago, so charming, tastefully restored, furnished in an authentic rustic style and equipped with many comforts including Wi-Fi. An old fresco emerging on a wall, the original "ciappon" flooring, the stones of the walls and the beams of the ceilings, but also a trapdoor that seems to come out of an adventure novel: these are all elements that make the stay special. Our days begin with a hearty breakfast based on local products, almost all zero-mile. Besides jams, honey, biscuits and fruit juices, we also enjoy exquisite cakes and excellent fresh bread from the Ferriere bakery, where they also make a delicious potato cake, a typical local speciality.

We pair the fresh bread with cured meats from the village's renowned delicatessens, while the cheeses and yoghurt come from the Caseificio Val d'Aveto. After such a good and plentiful meal we do not even feel tired during our long walks along the nearby trails immersed in greenery. Some of us even take advantage of the last snow left on the nearby heights for a nice snowshoe hike, already thinking of the possibility of returning here to ski next winter: the ski lifts of Santo Stefano d'Aveto are just a few kilometres away. During our weekend we go to visit the nearby glacial lakes and also try the mountain-bike trails.

We can alternate sports with dolce far niente: after the walks far and wide over the whole 180 square kilometres of Ferriere, it is also very pleasant and healthy to rest on the little sofas set out in the open among the fairy-tale houses, or to devote ourselves to making pizzas and focaccia in the courtyard oven or a nice barbecue on the bank of the Nure, a stone's throw from our house, while the children play near us on the wide lawn. To everyone's delight, but above all the little ones', a small flock of friendly goats comes to keep us company. When, the holiday over, we get ready to leave, the goats wave goodbye, but we are sure it will be an arrivederci that will soon bring us back to this place full of fairy-tale charm.

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Albergo diffuso Casa delle Favole Loc. Perotti di Ferriere Tel. 0523/922849