Cerreto Alpi

Accessibility
You get there taking the SS 63 in the direction of Cerreto Pass.
It's about 6 km from the administrative capital.

Tourist Area
Apennines

Description
The town of Cerreto Alpi retains a historical center of great architectural interest. The town is divided into 3 big housing centers, named respectively, the 2Pizza", the "Stette", Furloni houses, which occupy the peak of a narrow arenaceous ridge wedged in the delta of the Cerretano canal and the Secchia river.
The hamlet is not far from Tuscany and the dialects of the that region influenced the local dialect. At Stette an antique construction still bears the name "Captain's house" in remembrance perhaps of the ducal regiment which was stationed there to control the nearby pass.
The particular geographical position has also influenced the life of the town and traces of the antique road to Lunigiana are visible in un-paved mule roads, filled with secular majesties, which crossed the horror of the Schiocchi, and in a few buildings in the town.
Amongst the latter there's a 17th century tavern on whose surface you can see a concio with the following saying there engraved: "full I await you but not satiated, full I'll make you but then very hungry".
The church of San Giovanni is undoubtedly the biggest attraction.
The architectural patrimony of Cerreto Alpi is made up of characteristic double weathered buildings with surface layer made of slabs, locally known as "piagne".
Numerous small slab rock courts, with adjacent loggias, create a movement to the building which you arrive at through lowered arch underpasses.
The buildings are bunched, next to each other and distributed in a way as to oppose each other efficiently against adverse conditions, with numerous covered passages and narrow paved streets to the side of which numerous tabernacles with praiseworthy marble bas-reliefs rise.
Talented artists, probably Tuscan, depicted images of the most revered saints such as Sant'Antonio and the Blessed Virgin and there is often a familiar signature and a date.
Numerous round-arch portals surmounted by engraved pinnacles of the 18th – 19th century and squared windows o finely pebbled sandstone stand out from the houses which face the streets.
Among the vast chestnut woods, not far from the town, there are still a few grinders for chestnuts belonging to the 17th century.
An antique stone for vertical milling of faggio oil, kept near the ruins of the medieval church of S. Maria di Nasseta, reminds one of the food production technique now forgotten.