Serravalle di Carda is a hamlet not far from the city centre of Apecchio that deserves being explored. It raises on one of the south slopes of Mount Nerone; the sun lights up the white houses that cling to the rock and makes them shine in contrast to the thick surrounding green. The hamlet dominates an area once called the Byzantine Corridor, now marking the border between Marche and Umbria. This position determined its fate in the past, with noble families and the Church competing to control it and moments of proud autonomy, but also determines its happy present time. Precisely because of its position, Serravalle di Carda is the ideal starting point for all of the outdoor activities around Mount Nerone. And it is also a perfect place to return to, because of the abundance of hosting and restoring points where one can taste such typical local food as the lamb innards. Out of the ancient traditions which never were abandoned, the most important is certainly “La Passio” during which, on Good Friday, they re-enact the Christ’s Passion. While exploring the slopes of Mount Nerone, a great blue sphere standing out of the woods and nude walls, between the houses on top of a rock, calls irresistibly our attention: it is the Colombara World Map of Peace, a wooden creation made by Orfeo Bartolucci, a famous local surveyor, in the Eighties of last century. This enormous globe rightfully got a place in the Guinness Book of Records because of its size. A 10-metre diameter and 31-metre circumference sphere, the World Map’s inside can host up to 600 persons and can imitate the rotation of the planet. A work of extraordinary technical prowess, the World Map is both a warning and an auspice of peace and universal harmony. Immersed into a superb natural frame and the fruit of the best human skills, it reminds us that beauty can save the world.
Serravalle di Carda