We enjoy sharing our historical buildings with our guests. During a visit we invite the guests to “read” the history of our structures, trying to note the evolution that occurred over the centuries. We believe the core of the villa is from the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, but being on an important Roman road of 2000 years ago…. Over many years the owners built left, right, up, out as time and resources permitted and as needs dictated. In fact one of the pleasures of travelling the Tuscan countryside is admiring the farmhouses that obviously developed over the decades.
The same is true of our famous cities. In a walk through Pisa, Siena, Florence, Arezzo, Lucca, San Gimignano and so many others, one can focus on not only all the famous sights, but also, for example, the tower houses of the tenth and eleventh centuries. They were the personal fortresses on the emerging city-states that the wealthy families built for themselves to house their workshops and their living quarters. Then in times of civil tension they became fortresses from which to pitch things at those nasty neighbors. The higher, the better! Now they are imbedded in the medieval, the Renaissance, and Baroque buildings that went up around them.
Reading the surroundings is also an activity in our local natural setting. The annual flowering of the irises has passed. They were for a long time an institution in the local farm life with the dried bulbs going to the essence industries in France. Then the industry opted for a cheaper chemical solution, but it did not work, so they returned to the natural ingredient. But in the meantime the farmers had abandoned the fields so what we have left are the remnants of a time past. Now we have the full flowering of the false locust and the elderberry, in some ways invaders and pests, but yet very useful. The locust came in four centuries ago and found such a welcoming habitat that it pushed out more local plants. Today they hold the soil along the roadsides, offer bees a source for a very fine honey, and provide firewood. The elderberry’s flowers are nothing for the honey bees but can be used for making a syrup or fried in batter for a special treat. Later in the year the berries can be used for jamming and wine. Soon also up here in the hills the basswood will be flowering, filling the air with their strong scent and inviting us to gather the flowers for infusions, so-called herbal teas.
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