Stories of Folks and Places

Whether you arrive after a truffle spree in Norcia or a monastery trip around Visso and Bolognola, keep your heart suit for a happy thump when your eyes meet Pian Grande di Castelluccio, at 1400 meters above sea level in the central Apennines. Open your chest wide as you start descending. Marvel at the brilliant meadow bowl; a grassland of cornflower blue, rapeseed yellow, poppy red, and clover green stripes. Take in lungfuls of mountain flora scent. You can taste the high-protein wind, because the valley patchwork is made of lentil fields. Flowers grow wild with the lentils, a different color in each acre, since no pesticides are used. Man meets nature, they generate delight. And healthy food, because the local organic lentils, spelt, and wild chick-peas are a treat for all the senses.

I reach Pian Grande as often as I can, for a nature/nurture fix that feels better than chocolate. The rainbow basin of blossoms, crowned by its primordial bald peaks, gives me new breath every time.
Take the Thursday bus from Norcia, if you want to keep it clean in its blissful infinity. You will also avoid getting fined for wild parking by the Castelluccio pollution police.

June and July is full bloom, but the flowering looks different every year, every day. It's the raw beauty of it. For no coincidence the plain shines in “the Magic Side” of Monti Sibillini National Park, a protected area home to roe deer and chamois, eagles, edelweiss, and orchids. Name says it all: it originates in the Sybil, the ancient prophetess who dwelt in a cave on the eponymous peak. The whole group of Sibillini Mountains is known, centuries across, as a realm of fairies and necromancers. When you see Pian Grande you get the idea of why this place, of many gorgeous landscapes, has sparked so many legends and myths. Like that of Pontius Pilate dying in his fairy shrimp lake after passing, probably, the suggestive Gorge of Infernaccio, crossing Lost Plain, and disseminating the forests with seeds of repentance that spawned hundreds of shrines.

Now that you've taken in the magic, there are plenty of activities for you to enjoy. You can visit the historic village where you will find guest houses and agriturismi for a pleasant stay, plus quality restaurants serving excellent regional specialties. You can hike, ski, and snowshoe on the Sibillini. You can ride horse and muleback, paraglide, orienteer, bird-watch, mountain-bike. It is a paradise for outdoor activities. With that dream landscape!