Bibulca Way
Bibulca Way (in Italian:Via Bibulca) was an old road dating back to the 11th century that used to link up Modena with Lucca and it was part of a much bigger network of roads. It starts where the Dragone River flows into the Dolo River in the La Piana locality (44°22′44.15″N 10°37′11.22″E / 44.3789306°N 10.6197833°E) and finishes in the San Pellegrino in Alpe (44°11′30.55″N 10°28′55.39″E / 44.1918194°N 10.4820528°E) hamlet located on the ridge that separates the Tuscany Apennines from the Emilia Apennines. It was also called the Imperial Way due to its high toll that had to be paid in order to use it and that it could host a cart drawn by two oxen one beside the other, a luxury for the time. It has a length[1] of 18,7 miles starts from a height of 1,200 feet (360 metres) and arrives at the height of 5,100 feet (1529 metres). Now it's used as an amateur trekking path that runs alongside the strada provinciale 32MO road and in certain stretches shares the same route. It takes 9 hours to go through it all on foot.
History
This ancient Way dates back to the Roman Empire, when the ancient tribe of the Frinati,[2] which was part of the population of the Liguri, gave battle for over twenty years to the Roman Republic. When the Romans, once defeated the Frinati tribe in the 175 BC (Livy), managed to settle in the area, built a thick system of paths and roads. In fact, the name comes from Latin Bi- meaning two and -bulca meaning oxen. Some people, though, think the road may even date back to pre-roman period.[3]
In the Holy Roman Empire era it was called the via nova. At the arrival of the Lombards this road had a great loss of importance however in the 7th century the Pass of the Radici was opened. The most important era for this road has been when the Frassinoro Abbey has been inaugurated by the local ruler Matilda of Tuscany that overtook by importance the Pieve of Rubbiano settlement, the local main town of the time, that used to collect the tolls for all local roads and used to look after them.
The Way was often a matter to argue about between the Comune of Modena and the Frassinoro Abbey, to this latter one it was entrusted to in 1164, by Frederick I because of frequent robberies that took place in the nearby Garfagnana. Along the route were constructed 2 hospices; one over at the Saint Geminiano locality and another one over to Saint Pilgrim in Alpe. In 1522 Ludovico Ariosto while going over to Garfagnana to take its governament, tested the conditions of the road saying that it was an iniquitous road.[4]
Finally in the 18th century were constructed other transapenninics roads like the Via Vandelli that mostly shared the same old route of the Bibulca Way but on the final ridge to the way to Saint Pilgrim in Alpe preferred another route to the old one. Towards the end of the 18th century the Via Giardini road was laid down by the House of Este Dukes, and the Via Bibulca road definitively was left abandoned.