The Countess Matelda, the spirit that hangs in the Poppi castle...

The Casentino Valley, land of medieval castles and churches, always brings histories and legends to tell, and to be heard tasting something special in the dish and in the glass. Roaming through hamlets and shops in Casentino, you will perhaps find her in the figure of a craft beer bottle, but in Poppi is still told, from the Middle Ages, the legend of the Countess Matelda, a beautiful woman and a terrible lover. She was so comely that every man, in the whole valley, had a strong desire for her.

But Matelda was the wife of the most powerful man in Poppi, an elderly knight who often left the village for warlike campaigns. So, she spent the days in the silence of the Conti Guidi Castle, afflicted by solitude, wishing the life of the common people. Still nowadays, it is said that the beautiful Countess, when her husband was far away from home, used to receive in her room a different lover almost every night. After the sinful embrace, and to avoid that lovers could reveal the secret, Matelda made them fall into a ditch bristling with sharp blades.

One day, the women of the village decided to rebel, bothered to see many men of the place mysteriously disappear. They decided to foster the people and kill Matelda; they captured her, dragged her to the tower, and there inside they walled her alive. Thus ended the earthly days of the most beautiful woman in Casentino.

But Matelda has never accepted to leave the scene that way. Many guys swear to have seen her, mostly in windy nights, through the windows of the castle, dressed in white and with her so attractive face. Someone also says that she breathes on the neck of the most beautiful young guys, inviting them to spend some time with her. A suggestion that nobody would be able to refuse, even today.