The Sacra di San Michele is a majestic abbey. A legend is linked to the place: in a distant time the valley was visited by mercenaries dedicated to all sorts of raids. One day, a girl named Alda, was attacked by some of them and escaped to the monastery where she hid herself on a tower. When the soldiers reached her, she got scared and threw herself into the void. Thanks to the intervention of two angels, however, she landed to the ground unscathed.
Alda failed to resist the temptation to boast about the miracle and, shortly thereafter, went about telling her story. Since no one believed her, she decided to jump again into the void. This time, however, the angels, to punish her pride, did not help her, and so she died.
There was nothing left of her, so much so that a Piedmontese saying reads: "I toc pi gross a l’è l’ouria", or "the biggest part left is the ear."
