Sasso Mobile

Oliveto, an important village belonging to the Municipality of Monteveglio, is located just a short distance from the town, on the right bank of the Samoggia River, on a hill 224 m high. Its panoramic position provides lovely views of the Samoggia valley, the Padana plains, and the ring of the Appennine Mountains including the imposing peak of Mt. Cimone and others of the Tuscan-Emilian range. Inhabited since prehistoric times, the hill was also home to Etrucans and perhaps Romans. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, Oliveto was called Casale Sociorum and then Casale Sociolo. The name was later extended to include a cluster of houses at the foot of the hill and then subsequently changed from Sociolo to Soziore and finally was called Stiore, as the little foothill hamlet is still known. In the 10th century Casale Sociorum took on the name of the hill on which it stands, Monte Oliveto, so called because of the thousands of olive trees which made up the vegetation at the time, and finally its current name of Oliveto.