The environment
From Melezzole to Frattuccia, passing by Toscolano and S. Restituta, the North slope of the Amerini mountains offers all its typically forestal splendour. It's a succession of broadleaved mixed woods where sometimes it's the chestnut which dominates, sometimes the turkey-oak, and further up, on high, the hornbeam mixed with various species of maple. The invitation to discovery is obligatory especially if you go over the same old paths or the trails used for the wood picking.
It's a following of an emotion to another until you reach the ridge, where the holm-oak domineering reappears. It is the same tree which grows in profusion further down in the south slope, mixed with arbutus, lentisk or terebinth, in the mediterranean bush.
The mountain products
All the northern slope of the Amerini mountains is particularly fit to mushroom picking. The boletus and the royal agaric are the most precious species, and the rarest as well.
The Grotta Bella.
In the deep green of the woods of Santa Re-stituta, about ten kilometres from Avigliano, there's a cavity, the Grotta Bella, extremely charming and of a relevant anthropologic interest. Consisting of a main cavity,
considerably wide from which a large net of passages departs, the Grotta Bella is tightly tied to the woods and history of Amerino. Quite a few excavation campaigns have unearthed finds of Protohistoric Age, of First Iron Age, of Late Bronze Age, of Roman Age. And all the findings although coming from different ages, make us think the cave had always been a place of worship, dedicated to the woods and mountains gods.
The Marc Messegué Health Center
An old castle, Torre Errighi, built between the end of the 14th cent. and the beginning of the 15th cent., in the surroundings of Melezzole, is the seat of the Health Centre founded by Marc Messegué which pursues the purpose of curing ourselves according to nature. An usual destination for vips from all over Europe, grappling with bad food habits, psyco-phvsical stress, alcohol and tobacco abuse, overweight.
The CET of Mogol
At Toscolano, in 1993, the "vip" Giulio Rapetti, Mogol his penname, created a real hamlet, respectful of the building traditions and the architectural typologies of the territory. It's the "Centro Europeo di Toscolano" (CET), a place for musical formation, but also for high level conferences and meetings.
Curiosities
Even the King of France noticed the beauty of these places. They were and are so precious that in 1495 (the king's signature is in a missal at Toscolano) Charles The Eight held in hostage the hamlets of Melezzole, Toscolano and Santa Restituta. He asked and obtained for their restitution to Todi, to which they belonged, 1400 ducats.
