Intersting places in le Marche: Corinaldo
Today I’ll bring you to another interesting place to visit in le Marche: Corinaldo.
This medieval city has the most impressive medieval walls in the Marche region. The walls of Corinaldo are 912 meters long and circle the town entirely.
Corinaldo name has a curious story. People erroneously thought it was the transformation of the sentence: Corri in Alto! (Run on the top) which derived from the ancient Romans. In the past, before Corinaldo, there was in the valley a roman city called Suasa. This ancient city was frequently raided by the Goth tribes and was slowly abandoned by its inhabitants seeking refuge on top of a hill, thus founding Corinaldo. Today you can still visit this archeological site and admire the roman structures!. According to the historian, Corinaldo real meaning seems to derive from the words: Curia di Rinaldo (Rinaldo’s Council).
History and tales of Corinaldo
If you want to visit this interesting place in le Marche you can’t miss a long walk by the walls and admire the panorama. Elected the most beautiful town in Italy in 2007, Corinaldo enchanted even prince Charles. The prince in fact, spent many hours painting the landscape on top of the entrance of Saint Giovanni’s Tower.
After you enjoyed the walk you can take selfies in front of la Piaggia: the most famous staircase of le Marche. At the center of the staircase lies he “Polenta well”. Its names derives from the polenta, which is a dish made with boiled cornmeal. Speaking of which you should try it!
A legend talks about man who fell in this well while trying to save his sack of corn flour. The corn flour mixed with water and created a polenta mixture. The man shouted for help, however the people who came to see what was happening made fun of him telling to enjoy his polenta. Weird reaction right? Of course this story was created to make fun of People of Corinaldo!. But you know…every joke has a hint of truth!
This story soon became the inspiration for the historical reenactment in sixteenth century costumes, “La Contesa del Pozzo della Polenta” which takes place every year on the third Sunday of July. It is the oldest historic reenactment of the Ancona province, boasting more that 36 editions today.
Corinaldo: The village of Crazy people
Actually, of the many interesting places in le Marche, Corinaldo is actually known for being home of many quirky characters. One above all is Scuretto, a shoemaker and a heavy drinker who spent everything in wine. Scuretto even tricked his son into send him a monthly allowance to help him build his house. The money received was immediately spend in wine, leaving almost nothing for the house. At the end Scuretto managed only to build the facade of his house. You can still see Scuretto’s house today!
Corinaldo with his ancient history, quirky characters and suggestive historical reenactment is a lovely town worth a visit to taste the real Dolce Vita!.
Thatsmarche