Canepina owes its name to hemp (hemp in italian is: canapa), a cultivation, for which the village, located on a ridge descending from Monte Cimino's eastern slopes, was famous until the postwar period. Today only a small museum remains in memory of that past, because Canepina, despite the name, has devoted his role of agricoltural production centre, to chestnut.
The first municipality in the Viterbo Province for chestnut growing extension, Canepina plays a significant role at a national level for chestnut production. Chestnut growing is another of those cultivations that Created either a civilization, for his ancient origin, or a particular ecosystem, or rather two: the one of the chestnut grove, that is a real orchard of "breadfruit trees", as they were traditionally called, and the one of the chestnut forest, that man, over the centuries, has helped to extend well outside of its natural distribution area, since the chestnut wood was and still is, a critical raw material for multiple agricultural, craft and production uses. A walk in Canepina is a dive into these ecosystems: while walking among Secular Chestnut trees, expecially in winter when trees are leafless,you have the impression of wandering in the middle of an immense petrified forest where these giants, with Their twisted trunks, seem to be watching us from above like they were natural statues.
DOES THIS PLACE INSPIRE YOU?
