Pietravairano

Pietravairano has 3,018 inhabitants on the slopes of Monte Caievola, on a spur facing south-east, with the town built in steps. The first document that names it is of 1070, kept in the archive of the Benedictines of Montecassino, and it calls it Castrum Petrae. From the name of the place the family that held it took its own: Alexander de Petra, lord of the castle of Petra, and after him Giovanni, Roberto, Seneballo, and yet another Nicola in 1415. Then came others, down to the Grimaldi, who stayed until the end of feudalism.

On Monte San Nicola, above the town, is the most remarkable thing: an Italic theatre and temple laid out on two terraces, one above the other. And then there is the old coat of arms, the one a royal decree fixed in 1867 and which was replaced in 1983: on one side three silver hills, and on the highest a pointer dog with a red collar, seated and barking; on the other five ears of wheat bound together. In these fields, besides wheat, they grow lupins — a Slow Food presidium — and saffron.