Vallecupola is a tiny medieval village in the province of Rieti, lying on the edge of a splendid basin dominating the pass that connects the Salto and Turano valleys, on the border between the lands that were home to the Equi and Sabini peoples, on the watershed between the Cicolano and the Sabina.
The village is located about 1000 meters above sea level, under Navegna Mount’s shadow and at the borders of the “Navegna and Cervia Mounts’ Nature Reserve”, these last are peaks belonging to the Carseolani Mountain ridge. A land of transhumance since the dawn of time, this area is closely linked to the Roman countryside, the winter terminal of shepherds wandering. This land’s bond with sheep breeding is witnessed by the famous Vallecupola Pecorino cheese, which stands out among the typical products of the area, also celebrated in a dedicated local festival. If you Come here you cannot help but notice the unusual landscape, an output of the arrangement of these lands in function of a small agriculture, consisting of a network of small separate plots enclosed by dry stone walls with thick and impenetrable border hedges, made by thorny and fruit-bearing bushes. Corn and wheat were harvested in these "closed fields". Nonetheless, one is amazed by noting the perfect and harmonious insertion in the environment of rural stone artefacts such as stables and farmhouses typically built with a single pitched roof. It is a real dive into this "fenced" landscape and its implications for biodiversity and the life of the shepherds, what we will do on this excursion, admiring a place that, indeed, seems to have crystallized in its past
DOES THIS PLACE INSPIRE YOU?
Vallecupola is a tiny medieval village in the province of Rieti, lying on the edge of a splendid basin dominating the pass that connects the Salto and Turano valleys, on the border between the lands that were home to the Equi and Sabini peoples, on the watershed between the Cicolano and the Sabina.