Forests and Abbeys

Hugh and I visited this cute little Museum of the Woods in Orgia yesterday, a village that was the site of an Etruscan settlement. We learnt all about how share-farmers would work the land of the of the local Landowner in exchange for a house and some land of their own to work as well. They would give half of what they produced back to the landowner. To supplement their diet they would harvest chestnuts, acorns for their pigs, mushrooms, asparagus and berries from the forest. They also worked the forest for timber and for producing charcoal. So they spent as much as half of their time in the woods depending on the season. This system ended about 50 years ago. It all sounds very idyllic and in harmony with nature but I daresay it was a lot of hard work.

Armed with all this new information about the area in English I visited this little tiny hamlet called Frosini which has a castle that dates back to the 11th century and a church complex which is believed to have been part of a hospital of the Knights Templar - very Da Vinci code I thought. Then I visited the ruined abbey of San Galgano which may be the origin of the sword in the stone tale. Apparently San Galgano, a young nobleman who was born in 1148, had a dream and became a hermit on this mountain (much to the annoyance of his mother and his betrothed) where he put his sword in a rock to be his cross. A Church has been built around the sword in the stone and also an abbey complex built nearby which unfortunately suffered badly from a famine and then the black death in 1348 and fell into a romantic decline as you can see.

It is a little cool today and a bit rainy which is good for Hugh's hayfever so maybe we can drink a little of the local red wine - a nice Brunello di Montalcino - tonight!