Anyone interested in seeing how popular culture used to find expression in propitiatory symbols on buildings will find a number of recurring motifs used for protection and to bring good luck, common in many areas of the Modena mountains, and appearing above all on the architraves of doors and windows. The designs include the rose, or six-pointed star (found in the decorations on houses and votive shrines, and also on the moulds used for cooking "crescente" muffins), solar spirals, and the diamond symbol (consisting of a flower in bud inside a ring surrounded by a scroll of leaves). With a little luck, one can also find a human head sculpted in stone (in the Modena Apennines, female heads of this kind are known as "Marcolfa): these were intended to protect the home and to ward off evil spirits.

It takes patience and curiosity to find these symbols; the tiniest detail of every group of old stone houses must be scrutinised carefully. Since many of the best finds are made in remote hamlets which do not even appear on the majority of road maps, there is little point in providing precise directions here, but the keen-eyed visitor will enjoy making fascinating discoveries.