Verucchio

Iron Age nobles on this rock were buried with amber jewellery, wooden thrones and woollen clothes, and the finds now fill a museum in a former monastery. Later the spur above the Marecchia valley became the cradle of the Malatesta, whose Rocca del Sasso still looks out over the hills to the sea. In Villa Verucchio, a Franciscan convent keeps a cypress said to have been planted by St Francis.

Highlights

• The Rocca Malatestiana, with dungeons, great hall and a keep facing the sea (IT)
• Villanovan amber, weapons and rare wooden finds in the archaeological museum (IT)
• Two painted crucifixes of the 14th and early 15th centuries in the Collegiata
• The 700-year-old cypress at the Franciscan convent in Villa Verucchio
• Rocca del Passerello, the second fortress, turned into a convent in 1610

Summary based on Wikipedia and Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA), written with AI assistance.