What is Portico e San Benedetto known for?

Palazzo Portinari preserves the tradition that Beatrice's family lived here, on the medieval road between Florence and Romagna. Waterfall on the Acquacheta torrent, named by Dante in Inferno XVI, twelve kilometers up the Montone from Portico. Capital of the Republic of Florence's Romagna territories from 1386, the reason for the three-tier medieval urban structure.

Where is Portico e San Benedetto?

Portico e San Benedetto is a comune in the province of Forlì-Cesena, Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, about 39 kilometers from Forlì.

Emilia-Romagna · Forlì-Cesena

Portico e San Benedetto

A three-tier medieval borgoon the Montone river, capital of Florence's Romagna territories from 1386.

39 km / 24 mi

Nearest hub (Forlì)

723

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Portico di Romagna sitson the Montone river, in the Tuscan-Romagnolo Apennines forty-five kilometers north of Florence and sixty southeast of Bologna. The Republic of Florence chose Portico as the capital of its Romagna territories in 1386, and the borgo still reads as three medieval tiers: the upper part with the castle and the parish church, the middle with the noble palazzi along Via Roma, the lower with the artisan houses built vertically over four floors. Palazzo Portinari, on the central street, belonged by tradition to the family of Folco Portinari, Beatrice's father, and links the town to Dante's exile years. Twelve kilometers up the Montone, the frazione of San Benedetto in Alpe holds the ruins of a tenth-century Benedictine abbey where San Romualdo stayed before founding Camaldoli, and the Cascata dell'Acquacheta that Dante described in Inferno XVI. The municipality lies inside the Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi and carries the Bandiera Arancione.

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Gallery

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Known for

Centro storico di Portico
Three-tier medieval borgo arranged on the Montone slope, divided into castle quarter, noble palazzi along Via Roma, and artisan houses below.
Palazzo Portinari
Fourteenth-century palace on Via Roma, by tradition the residence of the family of Folco Portinari, father of Dante's Beatrice.
Cascata dell'Acquacheta
Waterfall on the Acquacheta torrent near San Benedetto in Alpe, named by Dante in Inferno XVI for the muffled roar it makes among the rocks.
Abbazia di San Benedetto in Alpe
Tenth-century Benedictine abbey at 485 meters in the upper Montone valley, where San Romualdo stayed before founding Camaldoli.
Ponte della Maestà
Stone bridge over the Montone at the entrance to Portico, medieval in origin and rebuilt several times after Apennine floods.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June brings water in the Acquacheta and green on the Apennine ridges, the best months for the walk up from San Benedetto in Alpe. September and October give the chestnut harvest and the porcini in the Foreste Casentinesi; the Montone valley turns copper into November. July and August touch thirty degrees and the centro storico empties between two and five, though the river pools below the Ponte della Maestà are cold. Winter is quiet, with most osterie closed Monday through Wednesday and the upper road to San Benedetto sometimes blocked by snow. The Sagra del Tartufo in late October and the Festa Medievale in mid-July are the events that fill the three tiers of the borgo with visitors.