A town in the Apennines south-east of Bologna, Pianoro is located along the Futa road, a route of communication in the past essential for the connection between the city of the Two Towers and Florence.
The territory is inserted in a valuable environmental context, enhanced by the presence of the Parco dei Gessi Bolognesi and Calanchi dell'Abbadessa known for its spectacular outcrops of gypsum with countless karst phenomena, including caves and characteristic gullies. The numerous ancient religious buildings, such as the church of San Giacomo Maggiore in Pianoro Vecchio, towers and hamlets make for a pleasant visit that, in addition to the municipality, can easily extend to the surrounding hamlets and fascinating natural places such as the peak Monte delle Formiche (Mount of Ants).
Pianoro lies south-east of Bologna in the Apennines on the Futa road with remarkable naturalistic possibilities.
At 15 km from the village rises the isolated mountain Monte delle Formiche.
It can be reached by car, by bike or by foot following a path with beautiful panoramic views over the valleys of Idice and Zena.
The ancient village of Livergnano that recalls in its name the rustic valley floor that the Romans planted with the colonization of the Savena valley. What makes it special and a destination for visits is the rather rare particularity of being constituted by a series of houses embedded deeply in the rock and of which only the front protrudes. Two kilometers away there’s Ca’ di Bortignano, a rural building tower of thirteenth-century origin.
The Botroidi Museum is located in Tazzola, an ancient village dating back to 1100. It preserves an important exposition of the characteristic anthropomorphic sandstone stones, collected by the speleology pioneer Luigi Fantini at the beginning of 1900 along the river Zena. The visit is a real journey through 80 million years, passing from the Cretaceous period to the present day, through contact with fossils, yellow sands and mysterious stones.
About 15 kilometers from Pianoro stands, isolated, Monte delle Formich (Mount of the Ants), from which you can enjoy a beautiful view and which owes its name to a curious natural phenomenon. Around the 8th of September, the day of the feast of Our Lady, swarms of flying ants reach the summit up to the shrine of S. Maria di Zena and die there. At the foot of the mountain is the Zena Castle, built near the stream with the same name. The castle, like the sanctuary, is of medieval origins, but the architecture has composite elements of the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries.
