Harsh and gentle lands, where the elements of the landscape have infinite faces, where the sea appears on the horizon simply by turning the corner, where the villages rest on high grounds, safeguarding treasures and where, in the woods, the remains of towers and castles can be seen, sometimes forgotten but easy to find in the names of places.
Names that recall the coming and going of populations, in search of lands to settle in: Umbri, Etruscans, Gauls, Romans, Byzantines, Lombards, who made way for important families: Malatesta, Montefeltro, Medici.
Lands of uncontaminated nature and gentle lines, which produce wheat, olive oil, wine, cheese, chestnuts, truffles.
Lands of silence and the poetry of those who have passed through or those who remained: Dante, San Francesco, Ezra Pound, Tonino Guerra. Lands of theaters, festivals, fairs, and events that enliven this territory all-year-round
It is crossed by Via Marecchiese and belongs for the major part of its territory to Emilia-Romagna. It originates in the municipality of Badia Tedalda in Tuscany, skims the northernmost part of Le Marche. Part of the territory of the Republic of San Marino also falls under Marecchia. Valmarecchia differentiates itself considerably from valleys further north, so much so that the course of the river is customarily used as a border between northern and central-southern Italy.
The territory of the so-called Italian peninsula traditionally starts from Valmarecchia. Evidence of this is the fact that the valley is the first to lose the stretch of plain typical of northern Apennine rivers.
In contrast to the following rivers, where valleys run perpendicularly to the ridges of the Apennines, forming a homogeneous structure characterised by narrow ridges gradually descending towards the Adriatic sea, in the Montefeltro area the valleys are characterised by cliffs and drops interspersed with rocky spurs strongly shaped by atmospheric agents.
This geological conformation together with a bloody medieval history is the reason why the main inhabited villages developed on top of suspended rocky spurs on the floor of the valley (except for Novafeltria which is in the valley).
From a historical and natural point of view, thanks to hills, the countryside, vineyards, and olive groves, fortresses, and fortified villages with a rich past.
Valconca, or the Conca valley, is a geographical area defined by the Conca river which stretches over the territory of the provinces of Rimini in Emilia-Romagna and Pesaro and Urbino in Le Marche.
One of the features of the Valconca territory is that it is scattered with hills, slowly decreasing towards the vast plain, never harsh in their approach to the Apennine chain.
The Adriatic Sea is always on the horizon. Along the ridges of the hills, countless villages have been created, sometimes reaching the top of promontories.
The morphology of the territory has impressed the genetic wounds of a remote geological evolution, during which the sea and the land competed for supremacy–almost uninterruptedly– and when the latter accumulating and stratifying itself emerged out of the first, the former, aided by the power of extreme natural disasters, reconquered the land by newly invading the coasts that had first emerged.
In this way, hilly reliefs were formed. At times these emerging lands, today rolling hills were transported by devastating natural disasters to the places ( where man subsequently began to inhabit them ) and they settled in more or less tilted positions or even in vertical elevation (mount Titano from afar).
Some hills originated from the evaporation of brackish and marshy waters where colonies of bacteria reproducing themselves caused the formation of gypsum and sulphur.
The territorial brand “Cheers, traveler” and its promotion is one of the actions directed by the
GAL – GROUP OF LOCAL ACTIONS MARECCHIA AND CONCA VALLEY Soc. Cons. a r.l.
