San Giovanni Lipioni - Territory

Territory

The village lies at an altitude of 545 metres. The territory's highest peaks are Colle Vernone (717 m) overlooking the village, and the mountain Il Monte (693 m) facing it. Oaks and beeches are the predominant trees, along with firs and pine trees. Olive trees are also quite widespread over the territory, followed by fig, apple and cherry trees. Bush vegetation includes several type of wild berries and yellow brooms blooming in mid-springtime. Fauna features increasing numbers of boars and foxes, owls, and a few EU-protected species of kites (Milvus milvus and Milvus migrans) that nest in the woods of Il Monte and its vicinity.

The nearest villages are Torrebruna and Celenza sul Trigno at a distance of 7 km each. The river Trigno separating Abruzzo from Molise runs in the valley beneath the village 5.5 km far.

Things to see:

  • The historical centre perched on the hilltop with its many old (some refurbished) hard-and-rough stone houses, the maze of tiny alleys, and the 17th-century church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, sitting at the top of a 200+ steps path starting from the pedestrianised main square Piazza Largo del Popolo.
  • The historical house of Rossi family (Casa Madre), built in 1650, nowadays property of Rossi-Cianci family. Currently, the house is under restoration.
  • The historical fountain, former owned by the local council, now property of Rossi-Cianci family, who bought it in 1960.
  • The recently revamped small chapel of Santa Liberata, at the foot of Colle Vernone, with its adjoining small pinetree wood and picnic area, surrounded by pretty sights of the extensive olive tree fields and vineyards below, and the mountains around.
  • Nearby, there's an imposing, tall, ancient oak called Quercia di Lozzi.
  • The paved road from the village to Il Monte mountain makes for a scenic and easy 5 km walking nature trail, offering breathtaking views over the river Trigno valley. On a clear day, the Adriatic Sea can be spotted in the distance (29 km NE), as well as the Maiella ridge (50 km NW), and the Matese mountains (47 km SW). A rest–picnic area with a spring water fountain known as Fonte del Trocco is found halfway before the road winds up through the thick oak wood up to the Il Monte top, when it unravels down through the fields. It then joins the main two-lane road SP202 leading to the village (2.5 km) across Colle Vernone, with more compelling sights of the hills and fields around.


Read more about this topic:  San Giovanni Lipioni

Famous quotes containing the word territory:

    “When the excessively shy force themselves to be forward, they are frequently surprisingly unsubtle and overdirect and even rude: they have entered an extreme region beyond their normal personality, an area of social crime where gradations don’t count; unavailable to them are the instincts and taboos that booming extroverts, who know the territory of self-advancement far better, can rely on.”
    —Nicholson Baker (b. 1957)

    “We found ourselves always torn between the mothers in our heads and the women we needed to become simply to stay alive.With one foot in the past and another in the future, we hobbled through first love, motherhood, marriage, divorce, careers, menopause, widowhood—never knowing what or who we were supposed to be, staking out new emotional territory at every turn—like pioneers.”
    —Erica Jong (20th century)

    “A Country is not a mere territory; the particular territory is only its foundation. The Country is the idea which rises upon that foundation; it is the sentiment of love, the sense of fellowship which binds together all the sons of that territory.”
    —Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872)