Modern Times

The state of the roads The building of roads suitable for vehicles connecting the provinces allowed quick connections between Romagna and Tuscany. The road toward the Mandrioli mountain pass was opened in 1892. The connection with Sarsina and Cesena was finished in 1912; in the same year the works for the Verghereto mountain pass toward the Tiber Valley began.

Great public works In the last decades of the nineteenth and in the first decades of the twentieth centuries, the Italian State was very active and innovative in the area. Great public works shaped anew the two villages thanks to the elegant, eclectic projects by Cesare Spighi. He was one of the most renown engineers and architects active in Tuscany between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. He projected the building of the Elementary Schools, the Parish church of St Piero in Vincoli, and the Palazzo Rivalta-Paganelli at San Piero in Bagno, and the monumental cemeteries at Bagno and at San Piero in Bagno.

The Twentieth century The state of the roads improved and many people on holiday arrived. At the turn of the century, Italian personalities stayed in the area: on the foot of the Còmero peak, D'Annunzio flirted with Countess Mancini-Giorgi; Olindo Guerrini arrived on foot, Alfredo Oriani by bike and Alfredo Panzini on horseback; staying at his wife’s, Armando Spadini drew landscapes and portraits to family and friends; from his house by the Mandrioli mountain pass, Giovanni Marchini painted flocks and farmers; Manara Valgimigli came back on foot to his home town to see his "Batàno"...

The countryside is abandoned The countryside has always been important for the economy of the area. Right after the end of the war, the population was as numerous as in the first decades of the century (10,820 inhabitants in 1921; 10,574 in 1951): the exodus towards the plane began later. Between 1951 and 1971, 3,928 inhabitants left the Commune, while entire fractions were abandoned.

The return of the forest Between 1956 and 1972, while the population was abandoning the upper valleys of the Bidente di Pietrapazza and the Bidente di Ridracoli, the State came into possession of large State lands turned into farm lands, pastures, woodlands and buildings. All these possessions formed the Azienda di Stato per le Foreste Demaniali (State Forests State Agency) that started the reforestation and solved hydraulic and forest problems. Nowadays those territories are forming the "Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona and Campigna National Park".

Art
An ancient Basilica
Tuscan Renaissance: paintings and sculptures
Paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries at Florence
The Tuscan 20th century
Works of art: symbols of faith