Clear, fresh salt waters in Verucchio: a trip into the Rimini hinterland - Part I.

Besides the liveliness of the riviera, made up of crowded beaches, blaring music, entertainment and nightlife, there is also another Romagna, a much truer and more intimate one, which wins over the visitor with the authentic charm of the hinterland. You only have to go about fifteen kilometres from Rimini to reach the beautiful village of Verucchio, a place rich in history and culture, awarded since 2005 the Orange Flag recognition of the Touring Club Italiano. We begin our visit from Villa Verucchio, following in the footsteps of an illustrious traveller who preceded us in these marvellous places over eight hundred years ago, during one of his long pilgrimages: Saint Francis. According to tradition, the saint stopped here in 1213 to rest. Since it was cold, he tried to set fire to the dry staff he had with him, but the staff would not catch fire.

Francis then said: "If you will not burn, then grow!", planting the cypress staff in the ground. From it a gigantic monumental tree was born, still alive today, 25 metres tall with a trunk 7.5 metres wide. The age of Saint Francis's cypress has also been confirmed by botanists, while on the site of the miracle a Franciscan convent was built shortly after the miraculous event. Today the tree of the saint is welcomed by the cloister of the church of S. Croce, a marvellous place of recollection. Even when we reach the historic centre of the village, located at the top of the hill dominated by the Malatesta Rocca, we ideally always feel in the shadow of Saint Francis's cypress, also because that tree has witnessed the many vicissitudes that have marked the last eight hundred years of Verucchio's history.

It was there during the lordship of the Malatesta, but also during the papal dominion; it saw the Napoleonic period, as well as all the events of the twentieth century. When Saint Francis arrived in the territory of Verucchio, probably his gaze too was drawn to the mammoth fortress located at the tip of the rocky spur overlooking the valley. Malatesta da Verucchio, known as Mastin Vecchio, a condottiero and lord of Rimini from 1295, also remembered by Dante in the Divine Comedy, was born in the manor in 1212, evidently under a lucky star: he lived indeed for a good hundred years. The Rocca del Sasso has been remodelled several times over the centuries and today is one of the largest and best-preserved Malatesta fortifications.

In Verucchio there was also another Malatesta fortress, the Rocca del Passerello, whose surviving parts are now being restored, while on part of its remains the monastery of the nuns of S. Chiara was built in the 1600s. The territory of Verucchio was inhabited long before Saint Francis's passage: visiting the Civic Archaeological Museum, located in the Monastery of the Augustinian Fathers of the thirteenth century, we can discover countless unique finds from the Villanovan-Etruscan era, including an elegant inlaid wooden throne. During our historical-cultural itinerary we also visit the evocative Romanesque parish church, and returning to the centre, in the characteristic piazza Malatesta, the town's main square, we admire palazzo Giungi, dating from the seventeenth century.

To the rhythm of the music of the Italian Air Force band we reach the Collegiate church, considered the cathedral of the middle Valmarecchia and built in 1863 by the Verucchio architect Antonio Tondini. To grow, a tree needs brother Sun, but also plenty of water: perhaps that's also why Saint Francis performed another miracle in the territory of Verucchio, that of creating a blessed spring, known as the Fonte di San Francesco. Our tourist "pilgrimage" leads us right to the waters blessed by the Saint, in the marvellous spa park in which the Osteria Pizzeria Acque Salate is set, located on the provincial road Nord that links Villa Verucchio with the historic village, near the Franciscan convent.

After leaving the car in the convenient car park opposite the osteria, we are welcomed with great kindness by the owner Giada Giovannini, a profound connoisseur of local history and traditions, who runs the historic property with impeccable preparation and contagious enthusiasm. We chat with her while sipping a cool drink on the terrace, our gaze ranging over the centuries-old trees of the park, lingering on views full of history, but also of opportunities for the future. "The first attempt at therapeutic use of the waters of the Fonti di San Francesco that spring on this property dates back to 1924 and immediately met with considerable success: so many tourists came to drink the water that the Ferrovie Padane decided to set up a special connection from Rimini. In 1933 a hydrology conference was even held here, with the participation of numerous authoritative doctors of the time.

It was the period when techniques such as heliotherapy and hydrology were being discovered, and trips were also organised for children to let them breathe in iodine. At a certain point the need arose to regulate these activities, and so the health director of the time, Antonio Del Piano, formerly mayor of Rimini and a leading light of modern paediatrics as well as promoter of the construction of children's summer camps, obtained the permits for the therapeutic exploitation of the waters for drinking-water therapy purposes", begins Giada's account.

She grew up practically alongside this property, bought in the 1970s by her parents, Gilberto Giovannini, already owner of the famous coffee roastery of the same name, as well as of the historic Rimini bar Bottega del caffe, and by her mother Rosanna Valbonesi, who has always devoted herself with passion and talent to keeping the park beautiful, but has also had the chance to experience on herself the benefits of the waters of the Fonti di San Francesco. "During the Second World War this territory, crossed by the Gothic Line, suffered tremendous devastation and it took time for the spa activities to resume.

In 1948 the National Congress of Thalassology recognised with an honorary parchment the outstanding qualities of the salt-bromine-iodine waters of the Fonti that spring at 18-19 degrees, and ten years later the Touring Club Italiano too issued Verucchio a recognition sign as a spa village, as can be seen from the plaque on the Town Hall building". In the 1970s, thanks to the work of Giada's parents, the spa park became a point of reference in the area, known for its unforgettable dance parties, its grandly organised weddings and the excellent cuisine of the villa's restaurant. Various bureaucratic difficulties, however, had prevented them from enhancing the spa water, even though they had planned to build a hotel and create a genuine spa centre, also backed by several university certificates confirming the healing properties of these waters.