A peaceful visit to the hillside Rocca above nearby Villa Basilica

We keep finding new favorite places here. Wednesday it was the Rocca di Villa Basilica, something that I had not heard of despite it being only 16 kilometers away, and it is basically visible from Montecarlo. This destination was suggested to us by Renzo Tori, a local bicycling enthusiast and poet who often posts scenic photos and poems on his Facebook page. As Wednesday was too cold for me to go for a bike ride, we hopped into our borrowed car and headed out on a dry but mostly overcast day. Our gps said it would be a 22-minute drive.

While Lucy and I had been to centro storico of Villa Basilica once before, we didn’t realize that just above the town is an abandoned stone fortress built in the 12th century. A rocca (literally, rock) is a type of Italian fortified stronghold, typically located on a hilltop, beneath or on which the inhabitants of a village or town might take refuge in times of trouble. We passed Collodi and headed up the valley, winding back and forth on sharp switchbacks once we reached Botticino. This would have been a challenge on my bike, even with the electric power boost. While there is a road all the way to the fortress, the last 200 meters looked a bit challenging for our car, so we parked and walked in.

I managed breach the defenses.

We enjoyed the vista for about 15 minutes—both the view of the Rocca and the view from it. We were the only ones there, and the fortress gate was locked, but we figured that was only a suggestion. If a fence can be scaled in two seconds by a 70-year-old man, it must have been designed with that in mind. Inside I found a rectangular cistern partially filled with rain water, and a wooden platform that looked like it could be used for a band or theater group in summer months. I climbed a wooden ramp that led to the circular lookout tower and tried to imagine being here 700 years ago while preparing my weapons to hold off advancing enemies.

We had a birds-eye view of Villa Basilica, and in the distance to the south, we saw Montecarlo—the fortress, the church tower and the two trees that are right outside our house. Looking north, we saw the isolated hillside village of Pariana. What must it have been like to live in one of these villages during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, when it would have taken two and a half hours to walk uphill from Pescia to Villa Basilica, and another two hours to Pariana? It’s fun to imagine. But then again, maybe not so fun to have been here when the village bounced back and forth between the warring kingdoms of Lucca, Florence and Pisa. The Rocca and village were sacked several times in the late 1300s and early 1400s. The city was burned, and the inhabitants killed, imprisoned or driven away at least three times in a period of 100 years. I think I prefer the isolation and quiet that Lucy and I experienced there today.