Travelcast Piceno - Audio & Video Guide per la Provincia di Ascoli Piceno

From the Church of the Oasis we return, descending the same street that had taken us here on our arrival. The street lined, with Aleppo Pines, opens to our left in a thick wood. The channel of Santa Lucia is covered with extensive vegetation, a typical example of the hill environment where, along with the most common species, one can find durmast and elm trees. In the thick underbrush, there is a large quantity of rough bindweed, a plant that is similar to the liana and has numerous thorns and red fruit in clusters. Having passed Porta Castello and reached the back of the Church of Santa Lucia, we continue to Via Gaetano Fraccagnani, named after a learned man of the law of the 18th century. Walking along the road we should note the series of buildings present on the left-hand side, whose construction dates to the 16th century.  The local historians have stressed that it is precisely in this area that the major landslide of 1574 occurred, originating from the hilltop just above it, Monte Castello.

In order to remediate the landslide, funds of 1000 scudi were given from the Apostolic Chamber upon request of the Bishop of Fermo, at the time, and the citizen of Grottammare, Felice Peretti, who later became Pope Sixtus V. The irregularity of this street sets it apart from the others because in one point, (and we can guess that it was near to the landslide) on the right, where the road is flatter, some gardens have been created.
Grottammare has a wealth of green areas, and it boasts a tradition of splendid historical gardens, as the example at Villa Sgariglia, of the cultivations of potted plants and use of greenhouses. The oldest greenhouse businesses date from the beginning of the 1900s and they are still located at the mouth of the Tesino River and throughout the entire Valtesino river valley.
Let us continue until the end of the road in order to see the buildings and the view of the plaza before Palazzo Palmaroli, then let us turn back and descend towards the arcade that takes us back to Via San Giovanni. From here we get to Largo Palmaroli, where our walk had commenced. Let us pause for a moment on the small terrace at the side of the building, with the coat of arms on the baluster. Not only can we take in a vast panorama over the sea, but we also see the gardens below, carefully tended, where orange trees grow around a large fountain. This particular kind of tree is an example of terrace citrus plants, the cultivation of which was introduced to Grottammare in the 18th century by the agronomist and Bishop Bartolomeo Bacher, who is buried in the Church of San Giovanni. Although it is no longer practiced, these antique citrus terraces can be found in our territory to this day. If we walk through the streets of the Marina, for example in Viale Garibaldi and Viale Ballestra, we can observe how the presence of these orange and mandarin trees is characteristic of the town.
The cultivation of oranges, lemons and all kinds of citrus fruit has for centuries constituted a profitable business for Grottammare, which exported these fruits to the surrounding towns as far as Pescara and Ancona and farther still to the other side of the Adriatic Sea. The importance of this citrus market is indicated by the figure of orange trees in the municipal coat of arms, by the presence of two plants at the centre of the town’s plaza, and by the fact that the old theatre was named dell’Arancio (of the Orange Tree). Because it provided the means to impose taxes and regulations regarding cultivation and export, the trade of citrus and other fruit helped secure Grottammare’s independence from Fermo.

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