Monghidoro
This place was the cloister of a 16th-century monastery; in the centre, the ingenious Olivetan monks had built a cistern to collect rainwater, which was made drinkable by being passed through carbon filters and then drawn from the well.
In 1751, father Leonardo from Porto Maurizio, near Imperia, lodged there during his missions in Monghidoro, which drew over twenty-thousand worshippers.
In a ground floor dwelling there is a marble plaque with an inscription in Latin and a small statue portraying the priest, made to commemorate the event. That is why this square has been officially named Piazzetta San Leonardo, though Monghidoro's residents have always simply called it Piazza della Cisterna.
In 1996, thanks to a fruitful public-private partnership, a comprehensive plan was launched to recover what remained of the historical town centre, starting precisely from the spaces belonging to the old Olivetan monastery.