In The Middle of a Fairy Tale

Getting to Realdo is like being suddenly catapulted in the middle of a fairy tale. Perched on a cliff, the hamlet (district of Triora, in the High Argentina Valley) is located at an altitude of 1007 meters above the sea level.

Realdo is an Alpine hamlet, once in the municipality of Briga Marittima and since 1947 under Triora. The ancient tradition and the Briga’s roots are far from being forgotten, so that on a insignia at the beginning of the town there is the writing Reaud, tèra brigasca.

Someone says that the hamlet was built over 200 years ago by a group of Briga’s shepherds, moving away from the county town because of a pestilent epidemy. According to other sources, it was an ancient outpost of the Savoy State to face the enemy Verdeggia, belonging to the Genoese town hall of Triora. The ancient name of the area, indicated as Ca’ da Roca, suggests this second hypothesis.

In Realdo there are many things to see: the Church devoted to the Madonna del Rosario, the municipal bakery, the old fountain and the monument to the Fallen. Although abandoned today, the small village “Case Carmeli” is characteristic and is a collection of houses scattered in the green, between meadows and woods. Once inhabited by fifty people more or less, it had a large mill, used for the grain and chestnuts, with which the wide valley was fed. Small funerary ornament objects come also from Realdo and they are now conserved in the Civic Museum of Sanremo.

Talking about Ligurian inland means also talking about good food. And also the suggestive district of Triora offers interesting dishes, such as sugéli, a type of orecchiette made with soft wheat flour and seasoned with pecorino cheese or the typical “brus” (or bruzzo), a set of several sheep cheeses mixed with milk, refermented and stabilized with grappa.

Alternatively, you can taste the brusùuse, pastry sheets with different fillings, seasoned with oil and garlic and baked. Of course, you cannot leave Realdo without tasting the patàche ‘n la foglia: thinly sliced potatoes seasoned with salt, oil, butter, fior di latte cheese, a little bit of flour and cooked in the oven.

Realdo

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