Although our farm and some of the historic buildings date back to the 17th century, Casa Cares has been here as a guesthouse for only a quarter of a century. The springtime flurry of nature’s explosive growth and the farm work of the moment bring our thoughts to our surroundings. The name of our locality, I Graffi, was known at least a thousand years ago and the main road to our farm was important in ancient Rome. A major transition, however, really took place just in the last hundred years.
At the beginning of the twentieth century new owners took over from the noble family who had experienced the highest point of the sharecropping system in the two previous centuries. The new owners brought enthusiasm and investment and tried to give new life to the property. Several points on the buildings are evidence of this. The two world wars and the end of sharecropping, however, thwarted this effort and the place was in others’ hands from 1950 until the arrival of Casa Cares Children’s Home in 1970.
The decades brought drastic change. Big farms, such as ours was, for the most part were broken up because the sharecroppers followed the siren of factory work, tough but not as tough as the farming they knew. Fields were abandoned, although some came to be worked again as our area, like many parts of Tuscany, was “gentrified” with persons buying and renovating the farm houses. New enthusiasm and investment saved many vineyards and olive groves on a reduced scale.
Now instead of a backwater farm area with few outsiders, the Reggello township is home to a good number of foreigners ranging from wealthy home owners to poor immigrant workers. Many Italians and foreigners also pass through simply to enjoy the setting, to walk the farm roads, and to visit the woods surrounding the Vallombrosa monastery, described by some as the most beautiful of Italy.
For us these are the weeks when our basswood trees burst full with their leaves to partially block our view of the valley; when the broom and other wild plants and trees bloom; when part-time farmers tend their veggie gardens. Then our countryside is graced by the violet iris, remnants of the time when they were planted by the farmers to sell the dry roots to the pharmaceutical industry.
For us, it is a time to begin planting gardens, as well as to prepare the house for the groups we will welcome during the busy summer months. This month we shall have a yoga workshop and again host a two-week graduate seminar organized by the Counseling and Guidance Department of Old Dominion University, Virginia. The leaders have developed a mutually stimulating professional exchange with Italian counsellors. Soon after will come a school from Basel, Switzerland. These folks will have the benefit from the fruits of our vegetable garden at its fullest.
At the beginning of the twentieth century new owners took over from the noble family who had experienced the highest point of the sharecropping system in the two previous centuries. The new owners brought enthusiasm and investment and tried to give new life to the property. Several points on the buildings are evidence of this. The two world wars and the end of sharecropping, however, thwarted this effort and the place was in others’ hands from 1950 until the arrival of Casa Cares Children’s Home in 1970.
The decades brought drastic change. Big farms, such as ours was, for the most part were broken up because the sharecroppers followed the siren of factory work, tough but not as tough as the farming they knew. Fields were abandoned, although some came to be worked again as our area, like many parts of Tuscany, was “gentrified” with persons buying and renovating the farm houses. New enthusiasm and investment saved many vineyards and olive groves on a reduced scale.
Now instead of a backwater farm area with few outsiders, the Reggello township is home to a good number of foreigners ranging from wealthy home owners to poor immigrant workers. Many Italians and foreigners also pass through simply to enjoy the setting, to walk the farm roads, and to visit the woods surrounding the Vallombrosa monastery, described by some as the most beautiful of Italy.
For us these are the weeks when our basswood trees burst full with their leaves to partially block our view of the valley; when the broom and other wild plants and trees bloom; when part-time farmers tend their veggie gardens. Then our countryside is graced by the violet iris, remnants of the time when they were planted by the farmers to sell the dry roots to the pharmaceutical industry.
For us, it is a time to begin planting gardens, as well as to prepare the house for the groups we will welcome during the busy summer months. This month we shall have a yoga workshop and again host a two-week graduate seminar organized by the Counseling and Guidance Department of Old Dominion University, Virginia. The leaders have developed a mutually stimulating professional exchange with Italian counsellors. Soon after will come a school from Basel, Switzerland. These folks will have the benefit from the fruits of our vegetable garden at its fullest.
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