The Legends of the Alpe della Luna

Crossing the Alpe della Luna means entering another dimension, suspended between the evocative sounds of nature and the fairytale mystery of silence. This fascinating and inviolable land has been the custodian of centuries of great and numerous legends that have always accompanied the goodnight of the little ones. Gnomes and elves still populate the forests today. There are also many treasures to discover hidden by bandits who robbed the numerous stagecoaches that ran in the Via Major and on the other paths to reach the plains of Romagna, from the hinterland of the Signorie and the Tifernum.
A story that we will reveal is that Rosalia and Manfredi di Montedoglio.
In the Middle Ages were the lords of Badia Tedalda the Counts of Montedoglio and Chiusi and, although these lords had given the castle to religious orders, they came occasionally to visit it and gave parties to which the lords of the nearby castles invited. It was on one of these occasions that the young Count Manfredi of Montedoglio met Rosalia, daughter of the Lord and Podestà of Colcellalto, who at that time was a Commune. The young knight, known as the damsel, fell madly in love with her and she returned him with a burning love, equal to his own. Logically, the Montedoglio never approved this love; closed in their austere nobility would not have allowed a scion to marry a country nobiluccia but with the excuse of visiting the possession of Badia Tedalda, he instead went to Colcellalto by his lover. On full moon evenings, while the two young men stood at the balcony to whisper phrases of love like all lovers, Rosalia said: "See, Messere, if, when the moon seems to lean against the Alpe, one could touch it, it might ask who wants and would be heard. "They also tell the old men that there are immense treasures on the Alpe, but no one has ever managed to touch the moon and take the treasures ... Someone who has gone has never returned. in love with the mysteries and the treasures of the Alpe della Luna that he, though superstitious like everyone else at the time, thought of going to the Alpe to touch the moon and to take possession of the fabulous treasure. Rosalia: "I go on the Alpe to touch the moon and take the treasures that are there and when we come back we will be so rich that no one will be able to hinder our marriage any more".
The young woman, who besides being very beautiful was also very brave, wanted at all costs to accompany her lover in his adventure. The prayers, the threats of the father were worth nothing: saddled two horses, they left for the Alpe. And nobody saw them coming back.
A few centuries ago, charcoal burners and woodsmen, who had built their huts in the woods near the Alpe, said that on the nights of the full moon they could hear the gallop of two horses and saw two shadows nearby, with their hands outstretched in desperate attempt to touch the moon. Even today the last charcoal makers of Montelabreve, Castellacciuola and Parchiule, are aware of these and other secrets of the Forest, such as those of truffles and coffee, that if you are lucky they will reveal you.