Historical contextualisation

The San Faustino Brigade was founded on 13 September 1943 on the initiative of the landowner Bonuccio Bonucci and a group of civilians and military men (Mario Bonfigli, Stelio Pierangeli, Gaetano Salciarini, Luca Guerrizzio, Luigi Peano) on a farm in the municipality of Pietralunga.

The Brigade, based on a territorial quadrilateral between Città di Castello and Apecchio in the north and Umbertide and Gubbio in the south, set itself the task of organising and coordinating the various gangs scattered around Pietralunga. Formally constituted on 11 February 1944, when it was also given the name ‘Proletaria d’Urto’, San Faustino was made up of the gangs of Cairocchi, Morena, Montebello, Capanne and San Benedetto, with Mario Bonfigli ‘Mefisto’ and Stelio Pierangeli ‘Geocaves’ as its commanders. Poorly armed until the arrival of the Allied launches at the end of April 1944, the San Faustino carried out mainly sabotage operations, attacks on the stores for the distribution of provisions to the population and ambushes against small German and Fascist patrols.

After the disarming of the local barracks and the celebration of the 1st of May in the territory, and after the battle of Montone, the San Faustino scattered due to a heavy Nazi-fascist roundup that began on the 7th of May. The San Faustino, after re-forming their bands with difficulty, took control of Pietralunga on 8 June and on 18 June officially proclaimed it a “free territory”.

The brigade took an active part in the battle of Pietralunga on 9 July, covering the retreat along the Carpinella valley. With the final liberation of the town on 13 July, the San Faustino Proletarian Shock Brigade passed the source and was immediately disarmed and demobilised. In the spring, the brigade numbered no more than 350 fighters.

Naturalistic and environmental context

The route crosses the valley of the Carpinella river, which runs from Pietralunga to the Tiber valley. In the hills that it crosses, the landscape is well cultivated, with fields of grassland or mainly alfalfa, interspersed with hedgerows and/or rows of trees, watering places for livestock and large camphor oaks that provide shade in the summer.

The fields are surrounded by extensive deciduous woods: downy oak, turkey oak, maple, manna ash, black hornbeam. There are also coniferous woods, mainly black pine, the result of reforestation in the last century.

Riparian vegetation, with black and/or quaking poplars and willows, grows along the ditches that furrow the land and along the River Carpinella, which flows below.

Route description

Once you have parked the car, take the road that climbs out of the valley.

Continue uphill along the main road, which has a good gradient and the views begin to open up. At Valbona (km 1,9), turn left and descend slightly, still on the dirt road; the red and white signs for the CAI path 116 appear. Shortly afterwards (km 2,3), leave the dirt road, turn right and descend along a signposted path (in addition to the 116, there is also the SM 9, Sentiero della Memoria, an old ANPI/CommunitàMontana project).

Still following the signs, you cross a small ford (2.5km) and turn right into a field to be crossed, keeping to the right edge of the field (red and white signs on the fence posts). At the end of the field, turn right through a mobile gate and cross another field, this time keeping to the left, towards the Abbey of San Faustino, which appears in front of you and which you reach after a cart track (3.3km). The Abbey, now a tourist centre, was the birthplace of the San Faustino Brigade, which was named after it in September 1943.
When you reach the dirt road, turn right and go around the residential area, then open up to a view of the Tiber valley, among ravines and mixed woodland.

We leave the road that crosses the pine forest and the 116 signs, turning left (km 3.8). We follow the unpaved road that follows the side of Monte San Faustino until we turn, following the sign, almost U-shaped (km 4.3) onto a forest track that narrows to a path and leads us to below the summit of the mountain (km 4.7). Entering a wider cart track, turn right and begin to descend. We cross the field keeping to the left and then return to the cart track with splendid views of the Apennines. Crossing the dirt track (km 5.6), we turn right and begin to climb towards Monte Ranchio until we come to a fork at a small house, where we turn left (km 6.3). We now walk on an old asphalt road, amidst reforestations affected by secondary succession, great views of the Apennines and beautiful specimens of downy oak.

We leave the tarmac by turning sharply downhill on a sharp bend (km 7.3). As soon as we pass a yellow house and a shed, we turn sharply to the right again downhill (km 7.9). At subsequent forks, always keep to the left. A little further on we leave the gravel road (km 8.9) and take the cart track that descends to the right. Then at the holiday home turn left downhill (km 10) and continue downhill until we return to the cars.