Vallefoglia

Vallefoglia came into being on the first of January 2014 from the merger of Colbordolo and Sant'Angelo in Lizzola, and the merger was approved by a little over seventy-six per cent of those voting: a very wide majority, which in the affairs of new comuni is by no means the rule. The name comes from neither of the two towns but from the river that separates and joins them, the Foglia. The coat of arms too, granted in 2015, is a count of the parts rather than a symbol: the castle has two towers, one for the castle of Colbordolo and one for that of Sant'Angelo, and the band crossing it is the river, with broom to stand for the territory. Whoever looks at the arms knows at once how many things the comune is made of, and there is no founder and no battle.

On one thing, though, the merger could do nothing: the boundary of the Church. The territory of Colbordolo falls under the archdiocese of Urbino, that of Sant'Angelo in Lizzola under that of Pesaro, and the two pieces of the comune remain divided between two different dioceses, as before. The comune is a scattered one, the houses stand in separate villages, and one of these, Montefabbri, is among the most beautiful villages of Italy, with the sixteenth-century parish church of San Gaudenzio at the top. At Montecchio, another hamlet, plays a women's volleyball team in the top national division, which for a comune of this size is an agreeable disproportion. And the comune belongs to the association of the Cities of Oil.