Bertinoro, Italy
2002 May 2-4

These images were taken during a trip to Bertinoro, Italy for an LBT Science Advisory Committee meeting. The meeting was held in a renovated 12th century hilltop "fortaleza" previously owned by the Catholic Church, but now owned by the University of Bologna and used as a conference and learning center. The castle, being on the highest point, is also surrounded by cell-phone and telecom link towers. On a clear day (of which we had few), you can see the Adriatic coast in the distance.

Bertinoro is in the state of Emilia-Romagna, the southern portion of which, Romagna, used to be part of the Papal States. This region of Bertinoro is noted for its wines, particularly the red Sangiovese di Romagna and the whites Albana and Trebbiano. Albana di Romanga is a local sweet wine peculiar to Bertinoro (it is pretty good, but doesn't travel well).

During the middle ages and renaissance, Bertinoro was a stronghold of the Malateste family, and a number of noble families had summer houses in the village below the fortaleza. There were so few visitors that they fell to fighting over who would get to show them hospitality. To keep what society there was from unraveling, a pillar was placed in the town square in front of what is now the town hall with hitching rings belonging to each family. Whichever ring the traveller tied their horse to, that family got to entertain them. This is the pillar shown below.

Bertinoro, like most small villages in Italy, seems to have a large wandering cat population. A few of them show up below.

I had little free time on this trip, being mostly in the Garrison room at the Castle at the meeting, and it rained most of the time anyway. We did get out for dinner (very good local food), and to take a few pictures on the first and last days. These are reproduced below.

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Adriatic1.jpg	Adriatic2.jpg	Adriatic3.jpg	Bertinoro.jpg	CastleHill.jpg
ChurchBell1.jpg	ChurchBell2.jpg	ClockTower2.jpg	ClockTower.jpg	FoggyRomagna.jpg
FoggyVines.jpg	Fortalezza1.jpg	Fortalezza2.jpg	Fortalezza3.jpg	FortCisterns.jpg
GarrisonRoom.jpg	Geraniums.jpg	OldPortal.jpg	OldTower.jpg	Pillar.jpg
PillarRings1.jpg	PillarRings2.jpg	RainyTownHall.jpg	Romanga1.jpg	StreetCat1.jpg
StreetCat2.jpg	StreetCat3.jpg	TownBells.jpg	TownHall1.jpg	Vineyards1.jpg
Vineyards2.jpg	Vineyards3.jpg	Vineyards4.jpg	WineBell.jpg