This is the sign for the Farmers’ Market
Address: piazza dell’Antica Gora, Montevarchi
open Monday through Saturday : 9-13 & 16-20.30

Montevarchi's Medieval Banner

For centuries,  Montevarchi has been a center for the retailing and distribution of high-quality products from the Valdarno, the Chianti and the Pratomagno: free range chickens and rabbits, artichokes and golden zolfini beans, stone-pressed olive oil and chestnuts. Known in the past as the “meat” of the poor, the chestnuts from the Valdarno are now a delicacy: roasted or make into the traditional castagnaccio flatcake.

Entrance to the Farmers' Market

As of 2005, a permanent covered market has been established in a small square which was once site of a flour mill. The “MERCATALE” sells local produce, heritage vegetables and cereals, local cheeses, crusty bread, cured ham from the Pratomagno and salami from the Valdarno, a wide selection of fine wines (and almost as much of a selection of extra-virgin olive oil) in addition to a myriad of seasonal products (fruit, jams, etc.) , all strictly local. This should be a first stop when grocery shopping in Montevarchi, on a par with the weekly markets in all the local towns which also offer a wonderful choice of garden produce, cured  meats and local sheep cheese.

In collaboration with this permanent retail operation, a much larger, monthly market takes place in Montevarchi for the sale of local specialties (from honey to pecorino cheese to boar sausage) directly by the producers themselves at stands set up in the main square, in front of the Church of San Lorenzo (the proud possessor of an unusual relic: a few drops of the Virgin’s breast milk). At this market you can speak directly with the producers of these products, taste the uncanny differences in the honey , cheese and cured ham hailing from different parts of Tuscany.

Monthly Market in the Piazza

Monthly Market Stalls (photo: ilmercatale.it)

Photo courtesy of the Mercato delle Gaite, Bevagna

Bevagna is a small medieval town in Umbria, near Assisi, with a population of under 5,000 inhabitants. Every month of June the town re-creates its medieval past. The inhabitants dress in 14th-century costume, and each quarter of the city (called the four gaite) creates a tavern which is open in the evening and serves dishes made from medieval recipes. The entire set of events is called the “Mercato delle Gaite” as one of the most popular events is the large market where goods made according to 12th and 13th-century techniques are sold.

The four gaite are named after saints: Santa Maria, San Giorgio, San Giovanni and San Pietro.   Each quarter has its own coat of arms and own identifying colors, and all four compete intensely in various competitions. There are horse races and archery contests, processions with trumpeters and medieval banquets where the theatrical mise en scène is as important as the food.

Photo courtesy of : centrovacanze/info

Artisan workshops are also re-created, and some – such as the coin-mint, the paper makers, the speziale (pharmacist), the monastic scribes (all university students practicing paleography) and the silk weaving process (complete from raising to worms to spinning the thread) – are often in operation all year around, providing school children with a living lesson in the skills of the past. In 2011 there was also a forge and a painter’s workshop, quite spectacular to see. The organizers are all very generous with their time and take pleasure in explaining the techniques to visitors.

A Taverna at midday, ready for evening revels

The narrow streets of each quarter are hung with the Gaita's colors

Sergio Cellai outside Workshop Door

Sergio Cellai has a workshop that borders on a stream that used to run the village mill at Mercatale Valdarno. He learned his trade from his father, and specializes in making traditional Tuscan windows, doors, and shutters in a time-honored fashion. This is an important craft for an area of the country where old farmhouses and historic villas must be restored with old-style fixtures which nonetheless need to incorporate energy-saving thermal glass and various types of insulation.

Recently Sergio made shutters for the Villa I Tatti  Limonaia in Florence, not only re-using the original ironwork, but choosing seasoned chestnut wood, which will better resist rain and sun, and perfectly matching the original color of the paint.

Sergio Cellai and a remake of a traditional farmhouse shutter

For years he has been coming to the rescue of Il Poggiolo, maintaining woodwork, creating traditional style doors for the Fienile, and recently he even made a decorative (and sturdy) child-gate for the top of the Casa Colonica stairs.

We had been thinking about this child-gate for years, not wanting to settle for an ugly barred rectangle at the top of a beautiful arched stairway. Finally Sergio and I had a brainstorm, and came up with the gate you see here. He had oak slats of just the right width, and the stepped top to the gate was calculated to compliment the curve of the arch. It now looks as if it has always been in place.

The Child Gate, closed at the top of the stairs

Galatrona Tower seen from access road (photo:Castelli.Toscani.com)

Perched on top of the skyline of the Siena hills, the tower of Galatrona is the only vestige left of a castle that once marked the boundary between the territory of Siena and that of Arezzo until it was captured by Florence in 1335. Used as a fortified outpost, by the 15^th century the castle had been surrounded by a fortified village, incorporating some twenty humble dwellings of farmers. At this point in time its role was to protect local inhabitants from marauding bandits and the pitiless passage of mercenary armies, and to keep watch on Florence’s restless neighbour, Siena. In the first half of the 16^th century, the castle and the whole of the Valdambra (the Valley of the Ambra river that leads down to Siena) saw battles between the Medici and Siena, ending in the defeat of the latter and Siena’s definitive subjugation to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (1555).

Today the tower has been restored and can be visited. You can drive (in a jeep) up to tower itself, leave a normal car 500 meters downhill and walk up, or hike all the way, past the medieval church of Galatrona (do not miss the elaborate Della Robbia baptismal font, in white glazed terracotta) and up a narrow and scenic road. During visiting hours you can climb to the top for a view that stretches over the entire Valdarno, gaze down on the vineyards of the 17^th-century villa of Petrolo (home of a prize-winning super Tuscan wine called Torrione, after the tower), and admire the wooded hills of the Chianti to the West.

On YouTube look up “Torre di Galatrona” for two videos, one of which features bicycle enthusiasts and a dizzying 360° panorama from the top of the tower, and the other an historical re-enactment with participants dressed in medieval costume, interspersed with views of the tower, its surroundings and various access routes.

For a list of the towers and castles (many in ruins) scattered throughout Tuscany, see:

http://www.castellitoscani.com/italian/indice_alfabetico.htm

Baptismal Font by Della Robbia (photo: GruppoGeoBlogspot.com)

The Torre di Galatrona is OPEN April through October

Every Saturday afternoon 15:00 – 17:00

Every Sunday 10:00-12:00 & 15:00-19:00

For information (in Italian) contact the “Amici del Torrione” tel. 055/9707336 – cell. 333/3768631

Gemma's Note (with permission)

Children love the countryside and the freedom of being able to run down dirt roads and across fields. For the more intrepid, the woods offer deer tracks and (if you are very lucky) black and white porcupine quills. Highlights at different ages will include communicating with gestures in the playgrounds of Montevarchi, climbing up the medieval tower of Galatrona, or trekking into Mercatale Valdarno for an ice cream (3 km).

Some children discover the joys of picking tomatoes with Allen in the vegetable garden, while others become amateur entomologists and collect every insect they can find. All such activities can make Il Poggiolo an exciting place for youngsters.

At times children make a special connection with the place and leave a sweet note, such as the one from Gemma (age 5) – here on the left.

I am very sorry not to still have the red crayon drawing of a spider which was given to me by another 5 year-old, which graced the refrigerator in the kitchen for a couple of months this summer. I think this young man will be the next Gerald Durrell.

One of my favourite notes was from an somewhat older child who wanted to commemorate his stay at Il Poggiolo the first year we began receiving guests. We had all watched the World Cup soccer finals together, and when Italy won against France (of course we were all rooting for Italy), he ran outside in amazement to listen to the cars blaring their horns with joy all across the valley.  I do not think he will ever forget that collective, public cacophony of celebration.

The Italian soccer team celebrates winning the World Cup, July 2006 (Photo courtesy of justsoccerjerseys.com)

Cennina Castle Keep, perched strategically on a steep hill (photo: O.Righi)

In 1968, a half-Italian half-French sculptor and ceramist, Osvaldo Righi, fell in love with the ruin of a 12th century castle. Situated on a hilltop in the Valdambra valley, which leads from the Valdarno into the province of Siena, this castle was once a fortress held by feudal nobility, protecting a small a village. The ruins and part of the village were for sale, and Osvaldo sank everything he had into acquiring what everyone told him would be his own ruin. The road was terrible, most of the village was abandoned, and the task of restoration hopeless.

Yet word spread, and by the summer of 1969 it was known through the grapevine from Florence to London to New York that it was possible to stay in Tuscany and help reconstruct Cennina in exchange for room and board. Young people from all over Europe and North America passed through Cennina, rebuilding medieval walls in exchange for copious amounts of pasta and local chianti wine, and in the next few years a cultural center was born for art exhibitions, concerts and summer seminars.

Today the cultural centre is still active in the summer months, and the concerts (of all kinds of music) are not to be missed. Osvaldo has also restored a few of the medieval living quarters into holiday apartments for rent, and has his own line of ceramic sculptural objects, table and glassware which can be consulted on the internet (see “Cennina Ceramics”). Do not miss a trip to Cennina when you are in the area, at any time of year.

Left: Cennina village

Right: Osvaldo Righi

Ceramic Ware by Osvaldo Righi

The Sting Villa in Figline (Photo: courtesy of gonews.it)

In 1997 Sting and his wife Trudie bought Villa Il Palagio in Figline Valdarno. The estate consists of a large villa and woods, vineyards, olive groves, and a converted barn that functions as a recording studio. Situated in the Arno valley south of Florence (a leisurely 30 minute drive north from Il Poggiolo), Sting’s 900 acre estate now features a recently opened a shop that sells organic farm produce: wine, olive oil, honey and salami made from the famous “cinta senese” breed of pig . Until summer 2010 this produce was only available in luxury outlets in the US and Britain (such as Harrods in London), but now it is also available to visitors to the Valdarno at the shop called “Tenuta Il Palagio.” In an interview with a local television station, Sting declared: “When I came here I wanted first of all to feed my family with genuine foods and quality produce, grown in a healthy environment …. I also wanted to use agriculture with practices that would nourish, rather than deplete the land.”

For a bird’s eye view of the estate (it is off the Strada Provinciale 16 that goes from Figline to Greve in Chianti) look it up on Bing’s maps. For more details on how this estate was acquired and restored, check out the article in Food&Wine: “Sting & Trudie’s Tuscany: An Organic Tale” By Frank Digiacomo.

Sting with a basket of organic vegetables (Photo:courtesy lanazione.it)

The Shop in Figline (Photo: courtesy lanazione.it)

Lavender in a terracotta pot by Christina Randall

Artists in Residence

A couple of summers ago, the artist Eugenia Pell and her daughter Christina Randall (also a painter) came to Tuscany to find inspiration. The result of their sojourn was a wealth of paintings, photographs and drawings, most of which were done at Il Poggiolo. One of my favourites is the window that casts light on the landing of the Casa Colonica stairs (see below). Eugenia – known to her friends as Genii – has caught the very essence of the cracked paint and warm colours of the faded stucco.

Below are reproduced some of the artworks they made: a postcard of the laundry line, where clothes dry in the balmy summer breezes, parts of the garden, and especially the spent flowers, whose astral shape seems to have enchanted Genii. Originally blooming as a ball of lavender colour, these flowers fade to skeletal starbursts which we keep on the window sill all winter long.

If you are interested in learning more about the work of these artists,  do visit their websites:

Eugenia Pell -  http://www.eugeniapellstudio.com/

Christina Randall – http://www.christinapellrandall.com/

Il Poggiolo - Garden view by Christina Randall

Casa Colonica: small window (Photo SMG)

Tuscan window by Eugenia Pell

Dried sunburst flowers on a windowsill (Photo SMG)

Sunburst flowers by Eugenia Pell

For anyone who is considering a holiday in Tuscany during the winter, the weather is usually crisp and sunny, and snow is a rare and passing occurence. It’s so rare when it does snow that I photograph it. Here is a winter photo from a snowfall. As is immediately apparent, the snow is rarely very deep, and usually disappears within 24 hours.

Christmas brings lots of festive atmosphere to the towns, where booths sell tree ornaments, special seasonal sweets, and merry-go-rounds delight children.

On New Year’s Eve you can see the fireworks all over the Valdarno from the vantage point of Il Poggiolo, where a 360° view permits a comparison of the fireworks from all the neighbouring towns.