This is Melezzole’s narrowest passage: a blade of stone between adjoining houses, worn steps, and relieving arches. The name—“Baciafemmine,” literally “kiss-the-ladies”—evokes the popular image of alleys so tight you brush past one another: a quintessential village scene, witty, romantic, and highly photogenic.
Within Melezzole’s concentric street pattern, Vicolo delle Baciafemmine is a tiny urban landscape: a few meters of shadow and light that tell centuries of everyday life. Here façades almost touch, little landings (“pianelli”) step upward, and thresholds turn into miniature belvederes.
The toponym, found in several central-Italian villages, springs from oral tradition: passages so slim you can’t help but brush shoulders—hence the playful “kiss-the-ladies.” In Melezzole the name stuck, along with the authentic atmosphere of this hilltop stronghold
Scan the stonework for small stories: smoothed lintels, old bracket marks, tiny openings. In spring and summer pots and window boxes light up the stone—perfect for photos (best light early morning and late afternoon).
If you haven’t yet, just to the right of the lane’s entrance turn into Via Aufidia to reach a charming square with a stone well framed by house walls—and, in the background, the striking silhouette of Monte Melezzole.
Following Melezzole’s urban trekking loop?
Umbro-Etruscan frontier land, land of contested castles, land of a landscape shaped by silent hamlets and rolling hills of olive, oak and chestnut trees.
Fondo Europeo Agricolo per lo Sviluppo Rurale: L’Europa investe nelle zone rurali
The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas
