The 25 April long weekend is approaching and in 2023 Liberation Day providentially falls on a Tuesday, so the 2023 Rai competition ranking comes in handy “Il Borgo dei Borghi”, from which we can draw a useful list of historical towns and places worthy of hosting us for a long weekend away from our habits and customs.
One inevitably starts with the “Borgo dei Borghi”, by the first runner-up in the competition. It is Ronciglione (Viterbo, Lazio) a rather ancient village near Lake Vico. Famous for being the birthplace of Marco Mengoni, Ronciglione has managed to preserve its original appearance as a medieval town, consisting of dwellings and monuments made of tufa bricks. The fortress, the cathedral, the Town Hall building, the fountain of unicorns, the museum of the old ironworks and printing works, the churches of Santa Maria della Provvidenza and Sant'Eusebio (probably the oldest church on the Via Francigena), represent the strengths of the town. Together with the rich local production of chestnuts and hazelnuts.
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If the lake makes you sad, there is always the sea. And what a sea! In second place is Sant'Antioco (Carbonia-Iglesias, Sardinia), the capital of the small island of the same name and a settlement of 11,000 inhabitants built on the remains of Sulki, one of the oldest cities in the western Mediterranean. In addition to the beaches, there is the ethnographic museum dedicated to byssus processing and the manufacture of wooden boats, the museum of maritime traditions, the necropolis and the catacombs, unique in Sardinia.
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No salty smell for Salemi (Trapani, Sicily), which stands on a hill over 400 metres high on the slopes of Monte delle Rose, surrounded by the vineyards and olive groves of the Belice Valley. An Arab-medieval town, built between the Mazzaro and Grande rivers on the site of ancient Halyciae, it retains Roman, Barbarian, Byzantine, Arab, Norman, and Swabian traces. The Norman castle, dating back to the year 1000, together with the cathedral and the archaeological sites of Mokarta and Monte Polizo represent the town's riches.
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Another short stop on the coast to discover Castro (Lecce, Puglia), a small town with a narrow historic centre dominated by the Aragonese castle. The village is located on a hill and offers a remarkable panorama of the nearby cliffs. Right among those rocks is the Grotta Zinzulusa, preceded by an enormous and rather unusual semi-Olympic swimming pool carved out of the rocks.
Last stop again inland, in Liguria, at Campo Ligure (Genoa). A medieval village nestled in the green Stura Valley, it offers visitors the Spinola castle with its round tower, the “Giardino di Tugnin”, the medieval bridge over the stream and the filigree craftsmanship. The surroundings are full of springs, waterfalls, trails and military forts to discover.
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