The very name of Cerreto di Spoleto sums up both the history and the character of the place, recalling as it does both the enviable position of the town, set amidst oak woods ("cerreto" in Italian); and the much-contested domination of Spoleto, which claimed Cerreto as part of its territory.
Cerreto stands as a sentinel to the wildest part of the Nerina valley, in either a strategic or a panoramic position, depending on one's point of view.
It has become the keeper of the cultural traditions of the Nerina valley on account of the ethnographic research centre which has been set up there in the monastic buildings of San Giacomo.
Gioviano Pontano, a man of letters well-known at the court of Naples, was born here; but the true sons of Cerreto are the "cerretani" or charlatans, who scraped a precarious living by studying and practising natural medicine, using their "ciarlare" (their chatter) to distract their patients when their herbs could not cure the malady.
This land of harsh conflict gave birth, too, to many hermits who for centuries chose as their refuge from the world the caves and cells of Madonna della Stella.
worth seeing ....
The Borgo
Madonna della Stella Hermitage
St. Mary's Church
