The Valley takes the name of the river Marecchia which runs along its layout. One can traverse it by the road SS258 (the Marecchiese in Italian) which crosses three areas: since the “ the Alps of the Tuscan Moon ” in , the Steps and the Emilie-Romagna and finishes with Rimini. Along the course one finds various localities of which largest and rich in history are Badia Tedalda, Novafeltria, Sant' Agata Feltria, San Leo, Torriana, Verucchio, Santarcangelo di Romagna and Rimini, in addition to cities or hamlets with names typically related to the places which follow one another along the river: Big shot Presale, Ponte Messa, Pennabilli, Moulino di Bascio, San Martino.

The Valmarecchia is rich places of historical and archaeological interests. Between those, the turns of watchtower of Roman epoch which were drawn up remotely visual, some are still present on the heights. In the surroundings of its source (ten km), the Mount Fumaiolo (1407 m) where the source of the the Tiber is, celebrates it river of Rome.

The Valmarecchia diversifies considerably compared to the valleys placed more at north, in the portion ranging between the rivers Santerno and Savio, the valleys are laid out perpendicularly compared to the dorsal of the Apennines by forming a homogeneous structure in teeth of saw , characterized by narrow dorsals which go down gradually towards the Adriatic Sea. In the zone of Montefeltro the valleys are characterized by escarpments or falls spaced by rocky outcrops strongly modelled by the atmospheric agents. The marly formations leave here the place to scaly clays of which they emergent of the high and cut out rocks, made mainly of likings and clays. This plain geological conformation with the bloody medieval history which characterized this territory, make that the principal inhabited hearths developed on the rocky outcrops which overhang the bottom of the valley (made exception modern the Novafeltria which is in the valley). To visit these perched places it is necessary to leave the SS258 and to take the stiff and sinuous accesses which carry out to it.

Geological curiosities

The rocks of San Leo and San Marino are the fragments of a large calcareous plate which formerly, when most of the peninsula was not emerged yet, had their base beyond the line which today indicates the limit between Toscane and Romagna. The bottom of this sea of times Miocène S (approximately 15 million years) consisted of a friable and muddy rock which is at the origin of the geological formation known as of “scaly clay” (1). This underwater scaly clay bed, slipped on the parts (now occupied inter alia by Tuscany and Romagna) coming from Tyrrhenian Western sectors. In relation to displacements of the Orogenesis, it undergoes periods of movement and others of rest, allowing the formation, on the bed, of a calcareous plate.

When the movements of the hollows began again, helped by the displacement of the glaciers, they also transported the plate which had been formed there, similar to a torrent transporting a floating raft. But the latter, lézarda, divided, giving up fragments during the way of west in Is, i.e. towards the Adriatic. First of all it gave up the large fragment, which is the Mont Penna (1283 m) in province of Arezzo, then the plate of the Mont Fumaiolo (1407 m), and finally many other “pieces” that and there from the valley Marecchia, the length whose scaly clays moved and went down.

The rock of San Leo (509 m) is one of these pieces, another low, is majestic the peak of Titan (596 m) (San Marino); others are Verucchio (296 to 332 m), Torriana (337 m). It is in erosion Pliocène and Quaternaire, which tore off the most tender rocks by attacking much less the harder rocks limestones, that they took this imposing aspect remained intact until our days.

Foot-note (1): The layers of scaly Argile definitely visible when one are impressed the super-road E45 Ravenne-Rome, with the crossing of the Apennines, around the locality of Bagno di Romagna. These layers of color milky gray, slightly tilted, are inserted between denser rock layers a thickness from 20 to 30 centimetres. In these layers, the scales are small fragments of rock punt from approximately 1 centimetre thickness on a few centimetres length and all directed in the same direction. The color milky gray of clay is found in water of the rivers at the time of the risings.

Bonds internal

• Flat of Po

external bonds

• site of the Commune of Pennabilli
• Site of the valley Marecchia

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