The place has a particular charm: to reach it you skirt broad conifer woods that give this corner of soft, rounded mountains a flavour of high mountains.
On the road that leads from the Santuario della Madonna del Macereto you carry on, skirting the sanctuary, in the direction of Cupi. It is a tiny village that you can't avoid passing through on the way to Fiastra. The path of the great loop of the Monti Sibillini includes a stop at the Rifugio di Cupi. The place has a particular charm: to reach it you skirt broad conifer woods that give this corner of soft, rounded mountains an almost high-mountain flavour.
In Cupi there is the little church of SS. Redentore e Santa Maria, dating back no less than to the 12th century. The little church has recently been restored and dedicated (by the people of Cupi) to the parish priest Don Girolamo Zampieri. As in the other little villages of this area, we find houses often built of slightly pinkish limestone. We notice a few signs of abandonment and, on the other hand, an immense effort to keep the village clean and tidy. The “Pastorello” is the only little shop that tries to sell its sheep's cheeses. It is open only at set times; you can call the shopkeeper on the phone number posted on the door.
In a little street we hear a strange chatter; through a small door we see a lady busy working sheep's milk. She is making some rounds of pecorino. The ricottas have all been sold already. I go in to watch the work, but of the milk only the whey is left, and the fifteen or so rounds of cheese just made.
I ask her if we can buy some cheese, and the lady, “Gabriella”, takes us to a well-aired cellar to offer us the more mature rounds. Just 12 euros for a round of cheese of more than a kilo.
She tells us that by now only 15 of them are left in the village; the others come up from the city only at the weekend and in summer to bring the children. She looks at a little family out on a hike and goes on to say, with a kindly melancholy, that only in August does the village come alive with children.
The little church is worth seeing, and the cheese is marvellous.
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Fact sheet
- Apennine area
- Central Apennines
- Italian region
- Marche
- Province
- MC
- Municipality
- Visso
- Hikes nearby
Santuario della Madonna del Macereto.
- Notes
Sleep and eat at the Rifugio di Cupi by phoning: tel. 0737 971041 or 3388224147.
Eat the cheeses of the Pastorello di Cupi, contacts here: http://www.pastorellodicupi.it/
Rifugio di Cupi: http://www.sibillini.net/c
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