Rabbi Valley

With its caves, cool ponds in which to find refreshment during the summer season and large smooth stones that seem to be made specifically for sunbathing, the Rabbi river is the heart of the valley of the same name and the gateway to this side of the National Park of the Casentinesi Forests, Monte Falterona and Campigna.

The first village you meet starting from the source of the Rabbi is Premilcuore, a destination for tourists who love nature and the quiet of the ancient woods. A place with mysterious origins – there are many legends about its foundation – in the early Middle Ages the area was under the control of the Church of Ravenna, while starting from 1124 it came into the possession of the Guidi Counts. After phases of various political alternations, in the early 1900s the town passed under the Province of Forlì. 

Not far away, along the Braccina pass that connects Premilcuore to Corniolo, is the village of Fiumicello with the small church of Santa Maria ad Nives.

Continuing the descent towards the valley, one arrives at Predappio, formerly a small hilltop village that was built around the medieval castle. Its recent history is strongly marked by the figure of Benito Mussolini, who between the 1920s and 1940s called the greatest architects of the time to work to give prestige to his native village.

Today Predappio is a veritable Urban Museum that preserves an original testimony of the urban and architectural styles of the Fascist period, protected upstream by the small medieval village of Predappio Alta, which links its history to that of the Rocca, built around the ninth-tenth centuries, by local feudal lords.