Roccatederighi is a medieval Tuscan village that sits on top of Mount Sassoforte wedged in an outcropping of volcanic rock. The town is only a twenty minute drive from Massa and about one-tenth the population. The oldest part of town is accessed through a round-arched door, opened between rocks and walls, which leads to the maze of alleys, arches and stairways between the buildings.
Archway
Staircases to more archways
Most noticeable is the volcanic rock that has been incorporated into many of the building foundations and defensive walls.
The rock in the back right reminded me of Rock Biter in the movie Neverending Story. Good movie by the way, if you've never seen it. I watched it when it first came out in the 80s and then again several years ago. It still holds up.
Rock Biter
Of course it's not an 80s movie without a catchy theme song. I couldn't bring myself to post the official video (so cheesy, even for me). So I'm posting this one with the movie clips. C'mon, it's catchy and Ira and I will be humming it for at least the next few days.
Neverending Story Theme Song
Anyways, back to Roccatederighi, every year since 1993, on the first weekend of August, the town dives into the past and stages a Medieval festival. They offer medieval food, music and even a falconry exhibition. I'm pretty sure this was a favorite with Viola Sofia. If all goes to plan and we make it back from San Diego in time, we might be able to catch the festival this year, fingers crossed.
But outside of the festivals, this town is owned by its feline inhabitants. Here are just a few we came across on our quick walk about the town.
Stalker cat
Ira thought this one was the boss, he clearly wasn't going to win any beauty contests, but he looked tough and a little beat up and the fluffy, pretty ones were giving him a wide berth, if you know what I mean.
Boss cat
And then there was this one. He couldn't fall fast enough to give Melissa his belly to rub. He clearly had trust issues, LOL.
And then before we knew it, we had circled the town and made it back through the arched gate.
In case you're wondering, there was another point to the visit. Lunch! Andrea and Melissa had made a reservation at da Nada, a family run trattoria that they had been to before. Great food and not a bad view to boot either.
We ordered several appetizers to share.
Acchiuge (anchovy)
Various crostini
We also had a meat and cheese plate and two orders of the fried potato slices. Two orders, because one order was just for Andrea, LOL. Thankfully I only ordered the bean soup for my entree, because I was already stuffed by this time. Andrea and Ira ordered the pappardelle and the portion was surprisingly large.
Not your typical portion of pappardelle
They managed through it though and we all headed back to Massa a little uncomfortable. The next day we all admitted to having zero to no dinner. Oof, we can't be doing that every day.
A dopo!
P.S. Stay tuned for posts from our trip to Sardinia. Also, thank you to followers 3, 4 and 5, woohoo!
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I love seeing the food photos! And actually everything else too!!
ReplyDeleteGood to know, I'll be sure to post more!
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