Peasant civilization

Historically, the local populations have lived above all on the products of the crops of a fertile land with a temperate climate, rich in water and domesticated by the patient work of many generations of farmers.

The rural past of the place is still visible today to those who visit the Fontanabuona. In every corner of the valley you can appreciate the terracing of the hills and mountains. A typically Ligurian landscape, the result of immense human effort that allowed us to obtain arable land even on the steepest ridges of the region. It was the monks of the abbey of Bobbio from the early Middle Ages who introduced the technique of terraced cultivation and crop rotation.

The memory of the ancient peasant civilization can be found in many corners of the territory where it is not difficult to discover ancient rural buildings for drying chestnuts, stone paved paths, old fountains and extraordinary stone bridges.

The traditional cultivations are those of the olive tree and of the vine in the southern slopes and of the chestnut tree in the north. In the past there were many lands dedicated to the harvest of vegetables, fruit trees and grains, as well as potatoes, the flagship product of the valley.

Today agricultural activity is smaller than in the past but is still practiced in family gardens and in a good number of farms that are committed to enhancing the territory and the typical products of the area.

The fontanino environment is largely composed of wooded areas on which many small villages are scattered at different altitudes, each with its own history and identity. Each town has a bell tower and a parish church to which secular religious traditions are linked that survive in the traditional feasts.