Pennabilli: Tonino Guerra's Borgo of Petrified Gardens and Forgotten Fruits

The borgo where poetry lives in stone

Pennabilli is a place where reality blurs into poetry, where walls speak and trees tell stories. Nestled in the hills of the Montefeltro, straddling the border between Romagna and the Marche, this borgo of just over two thousand souls became the refuge and creative laboratory of Tonino Guerra — screenwriter to Fellini, Antonioni and Tarkovsky — who chose to spend the last thirty years of his life here, transforming alleyways, gardens and piazzas into an open-air museum.

Arriving in Pennabilli means stepping into a world where the boundary between art and daily life dissolves. A sundial on a wall, a sculpture emerging from a corner, a stone carpet in a small square: everything here has been imagined, dreamed and made with the lightness of a poet and the practicality of a Romagna craftsman.

The places of Tonino Guerra's soul

The Orchard of Forgotten Fruits

This is perhaps the most moving place in Pennabilli. Tonino Guerra created it to rescue from oblivion the fruit varieties disappearing from the fields of the Montefeltro: the jujube, the strawberry tree, the pomegranate, the sorb, the cornelian cherry. But it is more than a botanical garden: it is a garden of the soul, scattered with sculptures, fountains and installations that invite meditation. The Sundial of the Encounter, a great stone arch, marks time with the shadow of the sun. The seven stone carpets, arranged along the path, represent the days of the week with mosaics that tell different stories.

The Petrified Garden

In a clearing above the borgo, great coloured ceramics emerge from the grass like giant flowers. These are the petrified gardens, Tonino Guerra's last public work: sculptures representing oriental carpets transformed into stone and ceramic, a tribute to his passion for everyday beauty. The wind blowing between the hills seems to caress them, and the light constantly changes their appearance, as though they were living creatures.

The Refuge of the Abandoned Madonnas

In a small building in the historic centre, Guerra gathered the votive shrines and sacred images abandoned along the country roads of the Montefeltro. Madonnas in plaster, terracotta and wood — some with faces worn by time, others still bearing traces of vivid colour — a secular act of devotion towards folk piety that was disappearing along with the peasant world.

The medieval borgo

But Pennabilli is more than Tonino Guerra. The borgo preserves a fascinating medieval structure, dominated by the ruins of two Malatesta fortresses: the Rocca di Penna and the Rocca di Billi, which give the town its name. From the top of the rocche, the panorama sweeps from the Marecchia valley to the Apennine mountains, and on clear days a glimpse of the Adriatic Sea emerges on the horizon.

The Museo del Calcolo Mateureka is an unexpected surprise: housed in the Augustinian convent, it traces the history of mathematics and computation from Sumerian tablets to computers, with a unique collection of scientific instruments, abaci and mechanical calculators. A perfect destination for families, with interactive workshops that captivate young and old alike.

The historic centre can be explored on foot in an hour's stroll, through narrow alleyways, stone staircases and sudden panoramic openings. Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II is the beating heart, with the town hall and cafés where the borgo's elders play cards on autumn mornings.

At the table in the Montefeltro

The cuisine of Pennabilli belongs to the upper Romagna tradition, influenced by proximity to the Marche and Tuscany. Potato tortelli — large half-moon parcels of pasta filled with potato, pancetta and cheese — are the dish you cannot miss. They are served with a white sausage ragù or simply with melted butter and sage.

Summer black truffle and the prized autumn white truffle perfume the seasonal dishes. They appear in tagliatelle al tartufo, in fried eggs and even on Chianina carpaccio. Fossa cheese, aged in the area's caves, is the other star of the table, perfect in slivers with a glass of Sangiovese from the hills.

- Potato tortelli — the emblematic dish of the upper Valmarecchia

- Tagliatelle with black truffle — the intense perfume of the Apennine forest

- Fossa cheese — aged three months in tufa caves

- Bustrengo — a humble cake made with stale bread, dried fruit and honey

Practical information

Pennabilli is reached from Rimini along the Marecchiese (SS258) for about 50 kilometres, an hour's drive through the Marecchia valley with ever more evocative landscapes. There is no rail service: the nearest station is Rimini, from which Start Romagna buses depart. The borgo is explored entirely on foot; parking is available on the edge of the historic centre.

The best periods are late spring and autumn. From May to June the gardens are in full bloom and the Orchard of Forgotten Fruits reaches its finest hour. September and October bring the foliage, the truffle season and the National Antique Market Fair, which animates the borgo for two weekends. In July, Artisti in Piazza — an international street theatre festival — transforms Pennabilli into an open-air stage.

From Pennabilli you can easily reach San Leo, the sanctuary of Pugliano and the springs of the Marecchia river, for excursions into the most secret heart of the Montefeltro where nature and history intertwine.