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morrovalle |
| Above San Claudio, the hill-village of MORROVALLE , skirted by a
stepped street which disappears through arched gates, is worth a visit
only if you have your own transport. The main piazza, tucked away at the top, is a tightly enclosed, even claustrophobic square, which for the past six centuries has been given over to municipal business. Flanked by the eighteenth-century Palazzo del Comune and squat Palazzo del Podestà (where Italy's first pawnshop was set up by St Bernard in 1428), is the Palazzo Lazzarini, built by those members of the Lazzarini family who survived their internecine battle for the privilege of ruling Morrovalle. The palazzo, though built in the fourteenth century, incorporates an earlier Romanesque-Gothic portal, possibly taken from a local church |