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Battedizzo

At the base of the steep southwestern face of Mount Mario (466 m) you can easily spot the umbrella-shaped canopies of the Italian stone pines in the "Battedizzo pine grove".

This pine grove, although planted in the late 1700s by a local landowner for the production of pine nuts, is blatant confirmation of the Contrafforte Pliocenico's Mediterranean microclimate. The existence of a castle at Battedizzo is cited in documentation from the 12^th Century; for a period of time it even belonged to the Counts of Panico. Like the fortress at Badolo, the castle was probably dismantled in the 1300s and its ruins were destroyed by a landslide in 1775. Twelfth-century documentation also refers to a church dedicated to San Martino, as is the present-day church, which once belonged to the Pino Parish.