Bobbio, in the province of Piacenza, won the “Borgo dei Borghi d'Italia” competition, the Rai3 program with Camila Raznovich. The victory was decreed by the popular jury with the televoting and also by the three jurors present in the studio: Philippe Daverio, Margherita Granbassi and Mario Tozzi. After the third place of the last edition, Bobbio managed to win the first place on the podium, excelling on the twenty finalist villages. The town of Palazzolo Acreide (Sicily) won the second place, while the “bronze medal” went to Rotunda (Basilicata). Bobbio is also the birthplace of Director Marco Bellocchio who, for years, has been organizing his own film festival in his hometown on summer.
Bobbio, village of the villages 2019
Lying in the Threshing Valley, the Emilian town of Bobbio has incorporated customs and traditions of the regions close to it, namely Liguria, Lombardy and Piedmont. The town is at the foot of Mount Penice, 272 meters high, and has about 3500 inhabitants, which increase considerably in the summer season because the valley has always been a tourist destination. Great satisfaction was expressed by the Major Roberto Pasquali for the victory on Rai Tre transmission.
"The result achieved - said the mayor - represents the culmination of twenty years of work spent creating a tourist brand of our wonderful village. The winning cards are our history and our culture but - added Pasquali - also being inserted in a context, such as Valtrebbia, that Hemingway called the most beautiful valley in the world. We have a wonderful river for swimming, a wild nature on our mountains and unique historical-artistic references ".
For the president of the Province of Piacenza, Patricia Barbieri, the extraordinary victory "will allow the city of Bobbio to make itself known throughout the country by exporting traditions and culture, typical of the Piacenza area".
History and monuments to visit
The territory has been inhabited since the Neolithic period and became Roman in 14 BC with the birth of the first nucleus of the village of Bobium. The history of the small Emilian town is intertwined with that of the Irish missionary monk Colombanus who died in Bobbio in 615. In the small town of Emilia, the religious founded the monastery that bears his name.
It represents a monumental aggregation of buildings among which the facade of the basilica stands out, flanked by the elegant portico of the abbey, where the museum and the famous Scriptorium are located. The other symbol of Bobbio is the famous Ponte Vecchio, also known as the Hunchback or the Devil for its particular wave conformation. It is a Romanesque bridge with subsequent reconstructions and baroque superstructures; the ancient building is 280 meters long and is characterized by eleven arches. Moreover Saint Francis square, the sanctuary of the Madonna dell'Aiuto (1621) and the monastery of San Francesco deserve to be visited. The latter has been preserved in the Franciscan style of the thirteenth century and with the adjoining cloister of the fifteenth century. While the church was rebuilt in Baroque style at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
(Photo from Facebook Iat Bobbio Val Trebbia / Kilimanjaro)