Valsegrida’s Legend: Ancient Cobblestone and Hidden Treasures

Valsegrida, or “valley-where-you-shout,” is named so because it is famous for its echo. The location can be reached via the Valeggio-Solferino road, just after the Ponte Visconteo, by taking the Erta Cavallara or the Strada del Monte. The “piera” (a gigantic erratic block) measures five meters in length, two and a half meters in width, and one and a half meters high.

According to legend, once it bore the inscription in harsh characters: “Se mi volterai – il tesoro troverai” (“If you turn me over – you will find the treasure”). An intrigued farmer made every effort with levers and supports to overturn it and eventually succeeded, but the other face mocked him with a second inscription: “Bene facesti – Le coste mi dolevano!” (“You did well – My ribs were hurting!”). Even here in Valsegrida, we find another legend linked to the megalith.

Legend and Traditions

The story narrates that the “piera de Valsegrida,” bouncing, goes every night to quench its thirst at the nearby river. The legend was revived when the Mantovani dug the Canal Virgilio with “pico, badil e scariolanti” (“pick, shovel, and wheelbarrows”); then a concrete walkway was thrown into the channel to connect two country roads. But the local people immediately thought that the little bridge was built to let the “piera” go and drink the water of the Mincio.

Valsegrida, destination of the ancient Valeggio loves, is celebrated in “Canti di Cele” by Umberto Zerbinati: “O Valsegrida, tiny and round – beyond the river between two shadowy hills!… Ninety dawns in that secret valley! – ninety beautiful dreams I would dream, – you my fairy and I your poet, nine hundred ninety kisses I would give…”

The poem can be found in the booklet “Dietro il filare”, published in Verona in 1906 (page 33). Valsegrida also narrates a sorrowful story of ammunition and pigsties; yet, the valley of the shout should be better protected.

Imagine, here gorse blooms, the flower of the Vesuvius, which Giacomo Leopardi, the great poet, sang about in one of his odes.