According to Titus Livius, it was a Samnites invention. Then the Romans admired it to the point that they make its name, cupedia, derive from the verb cupio, in other words “wish”.
On the Samnite area, that nougat made of honey and almonds or nuts was already produced and consumed many centuries before Arabs spread something similar throughout the Mediterranean, which in Italy would become known as “torrone”. In the Samnium the tradition has never failed, although with quite a few changed and innovations. One, of 1891, is linked to a place of Valfortore, San Marco dei Cavoti, which became since then the “village of torrone”. Actually, of the “torrone croccantino (crunchy)”, because it is a bar with crunchy almonds, nuts and sugar and dark chocolate-covered. No longer a delicacy only of Christmas time, but a pleasure to enjoy all year round. Even if San Marco still celebrates its most famous product in December, with the Festival of torrone and croccantino, taking place every weekend from the beginning of the month until Chrismtas eve,
But if croccantini and other cakes produced by artisan laboratories of the old town represent the main attraction, San Marco dei Cavoti has much more to offer on its territory, which is part of Alta Valle del Fortore. Situated on a hill of almost 700 meters high, you can enjoy a beautiful view of the mount of Partenio, Taburno and Matese. In the heart of the old town, the stream Tammarecchia streams, tributary of the Tammaro, passes close by the village, in contrada Calisi, where it forms a wonderful valley. And where there is the sixteenth-century Mulino Jelardi. Ideal places for a walk, or bike rides, as the way of the very old Regio Tratturo is, between Pescasseroli and Candela. Then also woods, oaks and holm oaks, between which the one of the contrada Zenna, corresponding to the Cenna of the Samnites.
The ancient village is dominated by the fourteenth-century Torre Provenzale (Provençal Tower), a stone tower with a circular plan reminding the origin of the founders of the village in 1385. Arrived in the Samnium after Charles of Anjou, they came from Provence, many from the city of Gap, so Gavot, and then changed to Cavoti. In the old town, which keeps its medieval characteristic, with the ancient palaces, the alleys and the squares, the fourteenth-century church of Maria Ss. del Carmine with eighteenth-century frescoes, the church of San Marc the evangelist, with the tower which became the campanile, with two paintings of the 17th century and a fine marble-made baptismal font; the seventeenth-century church of San Rocco and the rural church of Santa Barbara on the homonym hill are worth the visit. The very original Museo degli orologi da torre (Museum of the tower clocks), with fifty clock mechanisms for towers and churches from the 16th century to date.
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