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A History of Borgo Finocchieto by Judy Canton, with side notes by Mary Hicks

The Fennel Fields

Finocchieto is a charming name. Finocchio is sweet fennel and finocchieto means fennel orchard or fennel fields, just as frutto is fruit and frutteto means orchard. Sweet fennel grows wild all over in fields, hedgerows, at roadsides, along the railway, and in gardens. Finocchieto was no doubt known locally for the wild fennel plants growing around the slopes of Bibbiano. It has certainly had the name since 1318, and maybe for much longer.

To this day, when the wild fennel seeds ripen every year at the end of August, gatherers of all types and both sexes go to work collecting the seeds that will stud the delicious local salami, finocchiona, with flavor. It has been eaten for centuries, usually on thick slicesof unsalted bread and accompanied with a glass of red .

The farm at Finocchieto, like many Tuscan country properties no longer in agricultural use, has found a new lease on life. Its name, however, will link it to the old way of life and the tradition of eating slices of finocchiona with bread and wine will remind those who enjoy its stone walls and quiet, beautiful setting of the thousands who have already appreciated the same delights in its long history.

A Little Scene Setting

The part of where Finocchieto was built has a long prehistory;

- 228 - a long period of settlement before we have evidence of the farm’s existence. Navigable rivers and valleys were of fundamental importance in the siting of early settlements and in spreading cultural influence. Thus, the banks of the and rivers were host to a number of Paleolithic to Iron Age sites. It was during the centuries when the Etruscans flourished (about 720 BC to the Augustan settlement of 27 BC in which became the seventh region of ), that the combination of navigable rivers with favorable geological conditions first came into their own.

The region around the upper course of the Ombrone is particularly fertile and offers deposits of metal ores, extensive woods for the charcoal production necessary for smelting ovens, and quarries for building stone. The Etruscans built, traded, and farmed in these lands.

Excavations over 100 years ago unearthed a robbed-out chambered tomb at nearby Castelnuovo Tancredi, but recent work has uncovered a number of richly furnished aristocratic chambered tombs from the second half of the 7th century BC and well into the 6th, as well as the residence of at least one local potentate at .

The Etruscan palace at Murlo is on a site significantly named Piano del Tesoro (plateau of treasure) on the hill of Poggio Civitate. The original 7th century princely dwelling in the Orientalizing was lost to fire and replaced with a more monumental, decorative palace of the Archaic style in the 6th BC. In the third quarter of the 6th century the palace was mysteriously and deliberately dismantled, buried, and abandoned in an earth bank in 525 BC. Archaeologists speculate that the parting Etruscans may have then moved to .

Archaeologists are still working on understanding why the Etruscans chose to abandon the site, but the strange circumstances and requisite remains from two separate periods of Etruscan building are illuminating on their techniques and practices. The site also gives us exciting insights into the lives and minds of the Etruscan

- 229 - people and the landscape in which they lived. The second residence at Poggio Civitate formed a huge monumental square (60m x 62m) with watchtowers at two corners. The interior courtyard has three sides of colonnaded porches. The high roofs were magnificently adorned with molded tile of local terracotta, painted with friezes and affixed water spouts in the shapes of female heads, lions, and rosettes. At least twenty three huge acroterial figures stood guard on the ridgepole of the roof, bearded male figures in broad brimmed “cowboy” hats and females in long skirts and sandals with upturned toes. Besides the human figures looking into the courtyard, some real and fantastical animals faced each other along the line of the ridge. The grandeur and detail of these figures is astonishing and their presence on the skyline must have jolted the imagination as they still have the power to do today. The friezes are also elaborate and significant, offering evidence of the far greater position in public and social life held by Etruscan women than in either Greek or Roman society.

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The people of Murlo claim to be direct descendants of the Etruscan inhabitants of Poggio Civitate. A video offered to visitors at the town’s Museo Etrusco draws an ambiguous, though amusing visual connection with their alleged ancestors by morphing the faces of current residents into ones from terracotta sculpture and friezes. Watch as the owner of the local pizzeria pulls a pizza from the oven, smiling, and then freezes as his face blends into that of an Etruscan terracotta cowboy.

Aside from this amusing section, the video is of poor quality and difficult to understand. I recommend skipping the first fifteen minutes to start at the section where a local walks you through the remains at Poggio Civitate, not open to visitors. Otherwise, the museum is large and accessible to non-Italian speakers. The rooms are clearly labeled by period and brief descriptions illuminate each style and its place in history. Moreover, the town is a beautiful, quiet little spot and worthy

- 230 - of a stop.

Museo Etrusco, Murlo

Hours: April—June and September: 10 a.m.—1 p.m., 3—7 p.m., July / August: 10 a.m.—7 p.m., 9—11 p.m., March and October: 10 a.m.—1 p.m., 3—5 p.m., November—February: 10 a.m.—1 p.m., Closed Monday

Contact: 0577814099

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Finocchieto was a medieval country farm, within the old hamlet of Bibbiano, itself part of the administrative district of , a medieval walled town in the province of in southern Tuscany.

Life at Finocchieto was based around agriculture, dedicated to the annual round of crops, although it was also closely interrelated with life in the hamlet, the town, and even that of the city- of Siena and the greater word because of its position on the . Buonconvento owes its early existence to travel along this most important road of the medieval period as the primary route between northern Europe and the center of power in the Christian world, .

Founded in the late when travelers began to flow up and down the Via Francigena, Buonconvento controlled the crossing of the rivers Arbia and Ombrone and gained importance as a safe overnight stop and trading post, a day’s ride from Siena. By 1270 it was already the seat of office of the magistrate, called the podestà.

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- 231 - The name Buonconvento should not be directly translated to “good convent,” as we cognate-seekers might be apt to do. Rather, it refers to a safe meeting place or haven, using the old meaning of convento closer to the conventus and the English “convention.” Its protective walls provided travelers and pilgrims with a retreat from the wide world. Thus, it is only fitting that Finocchieto in the of Buonconvento should come into its own as a gathering place for modern seekers of knowledge, beauty, and conviviality.

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Humble travelers, pilgrims, merchants, , and emperors all passed along the Via Francigena, trading goods and services with the Buonconventini. Inns and taverns, blacksmiths and stables were essential. Tailors, shopkeepers, and merchants likewise found plenty of need. In the the town on the river crossing became a burgus, gaining official town status, and began to flourish at the expense of the original stronghold, the castle at Percenna on the hill outside town.

Some famous passers by wrote letters and kept diaries that reference travels through the area. As early as 1191 there is testimony of Philip Augustus of , that on his return from the 3rd crusade he stayed at the “mansione di Bon-couvent.”

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Putting Buonconvento on the map: A little more than a century later Buonconvento was witness to the tragedy that marked the end of the power of the Holy in Italy. Henry VII, (Arrigo VII) of Luxembourg and the came to Italy seeking to unite Italy and , and emperor. , the great poet, spurned by his own Florentines took up the cause and urged Henry to attack . Henry preferred first to take Rome, doing so first before turning his attention to Florence.

- 232 - After six weeks of siege, he still had not captured Florence. In failing health and spirit, he retreated to winter between and . In August 1313 he struck south with the intention of taking Naples, arriving in Buonconvento on August 21. Here, he died three days later, worn out, or some say poisoned by communion wine. Thus ended the hopes of Dante and others who wished to see the alliance of the two great medieval powers, the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope.

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As we can see, this small Tuscan town was indeed witness to important international events in its early years. However, it was not only in the that Buonconvento saw fame. Then, throughout the and continuing to the coming of the railway, it was an important post on the great highway to Rome and a stopping point on the so-called Grand Tour.

Patrician Sienese Families Enrich the Countryside

The farm at Finocchieto did not just bask in the fame of travelers who passed through the town below or its growing importance as a trading post. Finocchieto stood then and today on a ridge studded with great castles that dominate the skyline and remind of the riches of the area. Castelnuovo Tancredi is the first, and then there is the Castle at Bibbiano itself and next door to Finocchieto is the villa La Torre.

Castel Rosa rises nearer to Buonconvento. These four are merely the nearest, as the area is resplendent in them. The inhabitants of Finocchieto in the medieval period could also see the fortifications at Piana down the hill toward Buonconvento, the great castle at Percenna beyond the town, and further still the walls of and Serravalle. All were strongholds in the medieval period and

- 233 - Detail of La Torre, on the eastern side. though the buildings are much restored, or destroyed in the case of Percenna, they do provide us with a feeling of the impressive medieval skyline surrounding Finocchieto. They provide a live version of the skyline depicted by of , whose great fresco on the walls of the in Siena, painted in 1328, shows knights on horseback in the bare landscape studded with crenellated walls and towers.

The castles are also an integral part of the story of Finocchieto, for the farm in the majority of history was owned by the aristocratic Sienese proprietors of the Castle of Bibbiano and the villa La Torre.

The proximity of such grand establishments and large farming outfits must have made the medieval hamlet of Bibbiano abusy place to live. Movement among the families of he rich owners and their servants would have brought news from the city and beyond. Aristocratic visitors must have been more common than in Buonconvento, where such powerful families did not live, preferring their country estates or city palaces. Many who passed through the town did so merely to reach their country homes, or in the case of important clerics, to seek refuge and hospitality at Monte Oliveto

- 234 - Maggiore, the on the other side of town.

Moreover, the road that passed Finocchieto led on as it does today down to a ford across the Ombrone and no doubt many travelers with no need for the safe haven of Buonconvento or without the money to afford its hospitality would have chosen to pass by this way. This almost certainly was one of the many diversions that existed along the Via Francigena. Finocchieto may have been a small country farm, but it was set among the strongholds of important Sienese families and on the road to Rome. It was not cut off from the world.

The Height of Siena’s Prosperity: The Beginning of the

In the same decade that Henry VII died in Buonconvento there is the first reference to Finocchieto herself.

Siena, the city from which many great Italian families hailed, was not the backwater she is today. She was among the largest cities in Europe, larger than Paris or London, with a rich ruling class and wealthy religious establishments that were embellishing their public buildings, palazzos, and churches with works of art. In 1346 she had a population of 52,000 and controlled 295 outlying communities.

Siena had grown prosperous through money lending and exchange. She was also reaping the benefits of a stable government. The Governo dei Nove, or Government of the Nine, held power from 1287 to 1355, a long period of stability during which the building of the Palazzo Pubblico, the Town Hall and its bell tower, the Torre della Mangia, and the last circles of the walls were completed. Furthermore, this was the Siena that undertook the plans for the great new cathedral whose skeleton haunts the city today and was home to the Sienese school of painting which included greats like

- 235 - di Buonisegna, Simone Martini, and the Lorenzettis. Their works make up the essential cannon of medieval art and many of their paintings proclaim the prosperity and confidence of the city.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Effects of Good and Bad Government, painted on the walls of the Palazzo Pubblico, captures the essence of the times and Siena’s self confidence. The Sienese concern for order is evident in the idyllically portrayed town and county that shimmer with prosperity, while a poorly governed town provides juxtaposition on the consequences of neglect. The scenes are clearly depicted despite the bad degradation of the painting.

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Museo Civico, Siena

Featuring Lorenzetti’s Allegory on the Effects Good and Bad Government on the City.

Open: March 16—October 31: 10 a.m.—7 p.m., November 1— March 15: 10 a.m.—5 p.m., Closed Christmas, July 2, and August 16.

Contact: 0577292614

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This prosperity and attendance to order percolated through the countryside as religious establishments and patrician families commissioned paintings and furnishings to adorn their churches. Pietro Lorenzetti owned land around Bibbiano and in the early 1300s painted the beautiful Madonna and Child for the church of San Bartolomeo at Castel Tancredi, Bibbiano. It now hangs in the top room of the museum in Buonconvento. Next is an incense boat, decorated with a stunning angel, unmistakably by Lorenzetti

- 236 - and also from Castel Tancredi. A lovely early work by Duccio di Buoninsegna, and another Madonna and Child painted for St Peter and Paul in Buonconvento hangs in the same room of the museum, further evidence of the wealth of country towns and villages at this time.

In 1260, Siena won her famous victory against the Florentines at . This was perhaps only one battle in a jostling for identity and supremacy among the increasingly independent city states in Italy, but it is buried deep in the Sienese psyche nonetheless. The battles and wars continued but Siena remained a proud republic until it succumbed to the force of Charles V of , the Holy Roman Emperor, and Cosimo de Medici, of Tuscany in 1555. Siena’s win at Monteaperti meant nearly 300 more years as a republic, and she has never forgotten it.

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Bragging Rights: It does not take much time spent in Italy to understand the fierce competition and sense of individuality among individual locales. It is said that the only thing a Sienese and a Florentine can agree upon is a shared hatred for Pisa. These rivalries go back to the medieval rule of the city-states but here where the sense of history is considered essential to understanding the present, their pull is still quite tenable. The simple mention of the year 1260 by a Sienese is enough to send a Florentine hanging his head in shame.

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Finocchieto’s First Mention

In accordance with their love of order and need for control, the Nine ordered a land register in 1318, a Tavola delle Possessioni

- 237 - to record for tax purposes all properties within Siena’s jurisdiction. A team of auditors traveled into the country, conducting interviews with the head of each household and surveying the land. They returned their notes to headquarters where they were collated and scribe wrote them up in Latin.

The locality of Bibbiano was called “Bibbiano Giulieschi” after the Sienese family who had owned the nearby Castelnuovo Giulieschi (now the Castelnuovo Tancredi) in the 1100s, although by 1318 the land had passed to the Cacciaconti and then to the Bichi families. The Bibbiano Giulieschi entry listed four entries referring to farmhouses at Finocchieto.

The vast majority of the entries in the Tavola are for farms, or poderi, the Tuscan name for an agricultural holding, in the areas surrounding Siena and around already important towns such as and . Buonconvento was small and unfortified, thus the presence of four considerable farms at Finocchieto signifies the importance of Bibbiano as a Sienese outpost.

Finocchieto’s inhabitants were small farmers, two of whom were living close together, as they were recorded on the same sheet by the surveyor. The other two were registered as “al Finocchieto,” rather than on site itself. It is possible that the landscape was not unlike it is today, with two or more poderi living on Finocchieto itself and others spread along the road to the ford and in the river valley.

Lenerius Dini, the son of Dino, lived at Finocchieto with very little land, but a house and platea or piazza. Next door stood Minus Donati’s house and large holdings that included attached fields and vineyards. Minus Uguiccionis and Vanuccius Naddi occupied the houses at a distance, the first with fields, vineyards, and a shack, the second with a similar amount of land dedicated to vines and a vegetable plot. It is difficult to work out exactly how much land each held as the measures used varied so over time and between towns. Rough estimates give the smallest plot at Finocchieto an area of 180sqm or 30x60 meters and the largest, 10,220 sqm or about

- 238 - 100x100 meters.

The table was prepared for tax purposes, and thus only presents us with the initial picture, but disappointingly nothing more about these medieval inhabitants and their families. It is likely that their landlords at this point were the Bichi, who reportedly offered hospitality to Pietro Lorenzetti in 1345. We may also assume that they were part of the sharecropping, or mezzadria, by which the land in Tuscany was farmed from the early middle ages through the Second World War. The American Iris Origo and her Italian husband took on La Foce in the Val d’Orcia before the war, investing in a farm with a great house and outlying poderi where the sharecropping system was still practiced!

The Mezzadria or Sharecropping System of Farming

Under the sharecropping system the proprietor of the land divided it into holdings or poderi where a family would live and work based on a contract. The agreement provided land and the necessities for working the land in exchange for a portion of the farm’s production, as agreed annually. The holdings varied, but most supported a house, stable, barn, pigsty, sheepfold, chicken house, threshing yard, animal food store, tool shed, and bread oven. There, the sharecropper or colonno / mezzadro could live provided he paid the owner in goods, cultivated the land, and maintained the roads, buildings, and drainage in an agreed upon manner. The contractual details varied in every context, for example a family might have its own vegetable garden, but the general system applied universally. Even replacement costs were divided between the sharecropper and the proprietor.

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The Museo della Mezzadria Senese, occupying pride of place in Buonconvento’s medieval walls, is a meticulous and lovingly-done museum that provides an exceptional educational service to the community. The seamless merging of modern steel and glass in the centuries-old space perfectly exemplifies the Italian ability to conceive of the past as a relevant part of the present, just as this high tech, shiny museum devotes itself to the true core of the history of this region, farming. At the entrance is a video explaining the system in Italian, but worth watching nonetheless for the images. Downstairs, displays highlight various aspects of the sharecropping life, from the harvest to special feasts and festivals. Interactive features like life size statues of farmers and proprietors telling about life from their personal points of view, liven up the displays. Upstairs, a model home demonstrates the common living quarters of such farmers and the implements they would have used. This is a unique opportunity to witness what the very inside of Finocchieto might have looked like as few as fifty years ago, and essential to understanding the roots of this place.

Open: Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.—1 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m.—1 p.m., 3 p.m.—4 p.m.

Contact: 0577809075.

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A study of the lands in the area of Castelnuovo Tancredi based on the Tavola of 1318 shows that 88.4 percent was farmed in this way, with a written and verbal contract between the owner and farmer. There are no surviving contracts for the Finocchieto poderi but some nearby contracts exist today. The following example cites a contract for holdings belonging to the Mignanelli family along the Via Francigena near Siena in 1331. The Mignanelli of Siena would own Finocchieto in the late 17th century.

- 240 - “Nuto born to Guido and his son Cenni, people from San Mamiliano near Siena, have taken on the sharecropping, from Ghino born Bando of the Mignanelli family of Siena and rector of the Church of Santa Maria in Bethlehem near Siena, for four years from the next festival of Santa Maria in August, a podere that is the property of the said church, and close to it and to the via Francigena.”

The contract indicates the length of the deal but leaves much to be resolved by verbal agreement, including the percentage of the sharecropping and maintenance duties to be undertaken by Nuto and his son. Though in the early days of the mezzadria the percentage taken by the proprietor did vary, by the time the system finally collapsed in the 1960s it was always a half share of what was produced.

The Construction of Finocchieto’s Casa Padronale

In 1318 it is clear that Finocchieto was in existence, but not the great house as we find it today. In the absence of historical documentation to prove its construction date, it is necessary to examine secondary evidence.

Architecturally, it is likely that the house as we find it today is the result of centuries of evolution from rebuilding and extensions by the poderi. The house is indeed medieval in origin but the present building with its arched courtyard and filled in roof crenellations is most likely 17th century construction, built around a pre-existing house reusing and incorporating earlier elements, such as stone constructed windows. Some of these may have even been brought from elsewhere on the proprietor’s estate to achieve the overall

- 241 - effect of a medieval casa padronale, manor house.

Most of medieval Siena that we see today was reworked in medieval style, reusing old building components, in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Sienese delighted in recreating an earlier atmosphere, just as modern taste in refurbishment often seeks to use earlier styles and old or old-looking materials such as beams, inglenook fireplaces, or tiles from disused churches. In the Sienese case, the motivation to use medieval style is even stronger because it evokes the period of the Republic, her era of greatest autonomy and pride. The remains of some crenellations which had stood the roof at Finocchieto probably spoke of a style in vogue, intended to invoke the past, but even more strongly, to emulate the surrounding strongholds at La Torre and the Castle.

The manor house’s form, a house surrounding an arched courtyard, is a documented domestic form elsewhere in Tuscany from as early as the 14th century. See Appendix 3 for examples. The arches do not necessarily mean that the house had its origins in a religious establishment and since these are commonly very well-documented but lacking in the case of Finocchieto, it appears right to rule out a non-secular explanation to the origin of Finocchieto.

Our current understanding concentrates on evidence from the pattern of ownership of Finocchieto and the motivation for the construction of a headquarters in the area. Finocchieto was owned by one of other of the great Sienese families who were also proprietors of the villa La Torre and the Castle of Bibbiano, and sometimes of both. These great landowning families: the Guilieschi, the Cacciaconti, the Bichi, the Petrucchi, and the Borghesi, had a wealth of options nearby to rely on and lands and homes elsewhere in the region and in the city of Siena. They can have no obvious reason for building a casa padronale at Finocchieto. The Guilieschi owned Castel Tancredi, while the Cacciaconti owned the fortified villa La Torre, the Castle, and the castle at Percenna on the other side of Buonconvento. The Bichi once owned both the villa La Torre and the Castle, followed by the Petrucci family and their successors, the

- 242 - Borghesi. Finocchieto would not have been required for defense or as a local base until it became the last remaining property of the Borghesi in the district.

These arguments explain the probable late entry of the casa padronale as we know it today into Finocchieto’s history. The fourteenth-century was one of great transition in Tuscany, and threats were very real. If Finocchieto was not required as a safe stronghold, somewhere else to flee in troubled times certainly was. We have examined Siena’s prosperity and the flowering of her art in the early 14th. What follows is a look at the other side of the coin –literally in the case of the banking losses she suffered- but even more importantly, continuous warfare and the coming of the plague.

Guelfs, Ghibellines, and Medieval Turmoil

In 1316, Uguccione della Faggiola and his marauding army of soldiers from and Lucignano Val di Chiana sacked and burned Buonconvento, Borgofurello (the fortified hamlet on the other side of the Ombrone), , and Castel Rosi. Even if Finocchieto was left unharmed, the sights and sounds of destruction must have been extremely alarming from as nearby as Castel Rosi. Fighting among the small city states emerging in Italy and the presence of marauding bands of soldiers and mercenaries, not to mention thieves and bandits made for dangerous times. The towns and hamlets along the road to Rome were all lobbying the city authorities in Siena for fortification. Repairs, extensions, and fortifications were carried out at the Castle of Bibbiano, firstin 1338 and later in 14000 to the designs of Giorgio Lombardo.

Unraveling the complicated series of alliances and enmities that encouraged each small city state in Italy to involve itself in draining

- 243 - battles is no easy matter. It was a life and death chess game born of bitter local rivalries and wider international power struggles, particularly that between the Holy Roman Emperors and the . It was this warlike context that resulted in the great concentration of walls, towers, and castles that we see today in the skyline around Finocchieto. It also underlines that the local farmer, on occasion, was witness and sometimes partaker in sieges, burnings, and pillaging on his own doorstep.

The conflict between the Geulfs and the Ghibellines fueled these battles. The names are Italianized forms of Welf, the name of the German Emperor Otto IV, and Waiblingen, the name of the castle of their rivals, the . The name Guelf became attached to the increasingly influential merchant class who, seeking to free themselves from the power of the Holy Roman Emperors, attached themselves to the only viable rival, the pope. Anyone seeking to uphold imperial power and that of the old nobility became known as Ghibelline.

In Tuscany, old local rivalries may have counted for more. The Sienese were never lovers of the papacy and were even firmer opponents of anything Florentine. Therefore, while they tended as good merchant bankers toward the Geulfs, they threw their support in the Emperor and the Ghibelline cause as soon as Florence took up the side of the pope. Buonconvento did not veer from its support of Siena, as its hotel “Ghibellino” suggests today.

Throughout the 13th and 14th centuries the struggle for supremacy continued as first one party, then the other tore down and rebuilt their strongholds. The famous Sienese victory at Monteaperti in 1260 didn’t prevent her from having to defend herself and her dominions in the ensuing years. Buonconvento sought military aid from the Sienese republic in 1300, but being distant from the city and difficult to defend, she suffered many setbacks like the burning in 1316. In 1345 Pisa, having defeated Lucca, dismissed her hired mercenaries who proceeded to sack and pillage the area. Shortly thereafter, in 1358, the armies of occupied Buonconvento.

- 244 - In 1364, Buonconvento took another blow when Englishman Sir John Hawkwood, also called Giovanni L’Acuto and his gang of mercenaries gravely damaged the town.

The great 14th century writer Boccaccio set a story from his Decameron in Buonconvento and around, evoking the nature of the times. It is a tale of two young Sienese friends, based on the reality of the day. While traveling on a hot day, the men take a room in Buonconvento, where the story concerns itself with drinking, gambling, robbing, and the vicissitudes of travel. Indeed, the story tells us that traveling alone was not even an option for the Sienese in the dangerous days of the 14th century.

The Banchi di Sopra Crash

If the Sienese appeared to waiver about fortifying their strongholds it may well have been due to the setbacks that befell the city herself. Apart from the constant need to raise armies and pay mercenaries, much of Siena’s banking system failed between 1307 and 1319. The Bonsignori, Tolomei, and Malabolti family banking businesses, over-dependent on papal and princely patronage then dried up, stopped trading. Years later, in 1343, Pope Clement VI granted powers to Pietro Vitalis of Lucca to clarify and pursue the papacy’s claims against those bankrupt firms.

Meanwhile, the Bardi and Petruzzi banking houses of Florence were collapsing, but these Florentine families reinvented themselves in a second generation of reorganized banks. The Sienese did not recover in the same way, for example her great Monte dei Paschi bank was not founded until 1472. Thus she lost further ground to the Florentines in controlling the money markets.

- 245 - The Ravages Siena and the Countryside

If the wars and banking failures weren’t enough, the devastating disease that swept the whole of Europe hit Siena in 1348. Like in other cities where people lived in close quarters among unhygienic conditions, the plague spread quickly in Siena, killing the majority of the population. Though numbers differ from account to account, some say as many as nine tenths of Siena’s population died. A contemporary account by Agnolo di Tura del Grasso tells of the misery, pain, and putrefaction brought by the disease and the helplessness of the people, having buried his five children with his own hands. He says that 52,000 died in total, plus 28,000 in the suburbs. 36,000 were younger than twenty.

Whether or not these numbers are accurate, most art historians believe that the plague carried off many of the early Sienese masters like Pietro Lorenzetti and likely, his brother Ambrogio. Thus the plague played a large roll in ending the early spectacular flowering of Sienese art. It also ended the great project for the new cathedral, planned to be among the largest in the world. With its suddenly diminished population, such an enterprise became useless. Laborers living in cramped quarters had been even harder hit than the upper classes, but even had the labor been available, the reduced congregation size was drastic enough to render new spaces superfluous.

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The Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Siena, besides an impressive art collection including the largest existing medieval painting, Duccio’s Maestà, offers the unique opportunity to contemplate the possibility of what would have been one of the world’s largest cathedrals by climbing through the skeleton of the planned

- 246 - building to a stupendous view of the city adjacent to the Duomo’s present dome.

Open: 10:30 a.m.—7:30 p.m. Sunday and holidays 1:30 p.m.— 6 p.m. In the winter the church closes a half hour earlier, in summer a half-hour later. The Treq is open more or less at the same time at the church, but the Oratorio San Bernardino is only open from 1:30 p.m.—7 p.m. and only on appointment from November to February.

Contact: 0577286300

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The situation in the countryside was even more complex. Castles and fortresses, in effect mini-cities and appallingly equally unhygienic, saw drastic population losses. Again the workers died in larger numbers. Fields were untended. On the other hand, a rebellion against city conditions led a “back to the countryside” movement. Boccaccio’s tales, for example, are supposed to be told by Sienese who fled the plague by moving to the countryside and passed the time telling each other stories.

One further consequence for the area around Buonconvento was the loss of the abbot, the blessed Bernard, and many of his monks. On the other hand, the new Olivetan order gained strength as they took on the pivotal roll of entering Siena and other towns to selflessly care for the sick.

A New Order: The Founding of the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore

In the same year as Henry VII died in Buonconvento, 1313, Giovanni the son of Mino Tolomei and Fulvia Tancredi left Siena

- 247 - with his two friends Patrizio Patrizi and Ambrogio for the desert of in the , the astonishing clay outcrops between Buonconvento and Asciano. Giovanni had just had a strange experience. A learned man, he had been about to deliver a lecture when he was struck blind. In the darkness, visions came to him and after praying to the Virgin Mary, his sight was restored. Instead of delivering the lecture, he preached a sermon, De Contemptu Mundi, deploring the condition of Italy, the exile of the popes in Avignon, and the general state of enmity in the world. He then gave all his worldly goods to the poor, retaining only the barren lands of the Crete where he then took his friends.

They began by building a chapel, and Giovanni, changing his name to Bernardo set out to redeem the local inhabitants, who thought him crazy and dangerous. The Ghibelline family accused him of heresy. Bernardo and Ambrogio Piccolomini were sent to Avignon but the pope received them with praise and sent them back to see the Bishop of Arezzo, Guido Tarlati, who at the pope’s bidding conferred on them the Benedictine Rule and inaugurated the new order under the name of Congregation of the blessed Virgin of Monte Oliveto. The pope confirmed the order in 1319.

Bernardo dedicated himself and his order to assist in the reconciliation of factions, towns, and cities, but he is best known for instructing his monks to leave the abbey and tend to those sick with the plague. He died of the disease in 1348.

A remnant returned to Monte Oliveto. Though they were few, they had garnered the high esteem of the community, which helped the order to thrive. In 1497, it was rich enough to commission Luca Signorelli and after him, Il Sodoma to paint the frescoes in the abbey’s cloister. The resultant masterpiece on the life of Saint Benedict is regarded as one of the greats of Italian renaissance art.

The abbey has always drawn visitors, pilgrims, traveling clerics, and cardinals on the journey to and from Rome. The same visitors would cross the river at Buonconvento, thus bringing commerce

- 248 - to the town. Among the elite visitors were popes like Paul III in 1538, emperors like Charles V in 1536 (who visited after the sack of Rome but before laying siege to Siena and Buonconvento), and the great poet Torquato Tasso in 1590.

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Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore, visible looking north from Finocchieto, is just a short, beautiful ride from Buonconvento, and worthy of the quick trip. In addition to viewing Signorelli and Sodoma’s fresco cycle, The Life of Saint Benedict, it is often possible to wander the library with its ancient volumes and art collection. Afternoon services allow an opportunity to take in chanting while observing the marvelous carved choir stalls by Fra Giovanni da Verona in the chapel. In keeping with their reputation as healers, the monks maintain an apothecary of products made from local herbs. Stop by for homemade balms, soaps, aromatherapy, honeys, and jams.

Open: winter: 9:15 a.m. and closes from 12 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., and for good at 5 p.m. (or 6 in summer)

Contact: 0577718567

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The Sienese Take Action and Fortify

For all the troubles of the 14th century, Siena was still a great city and a republic. She set about fortifying her strongholds along the Via Francigena, including Buonconvento in 1385. Next, Siena began to invest in the newly fortified town, building a town hall and bell tower to house the offices of the town governor or deputy to

- 249 - Town hall, Buonconvento. the vicario, who was formally moved from Percenna and installed there in 1410.

The old Palazzo Podestarile in via Soccini was used as the town hall until the middle of the 19th century when the hall was sold to a private individual because it had become too small to house the council’s growing functions. In 1480 the people of Buonconvento became citizens of Siena.

A Protected Val d’Arbia in the 15th Century

Encased in the new walls, Buonconvento became the most important defense on the Via Francigena in the Val d’Arbia. Her territory, which had already included the earlier strongholds of Percenna and Borgofurello, now stretched from to the gates of Siena. Borgofurello, on the opposite bank of the river, was dismantled and its inhabitants entitled to build houses in Buonconvento.

- 250 - Buonconvento’s northern gate, the Porta Senese.

In the 15th century, the bridges were also built at Ponte, enabling Buonconvento better transport and increasing travelers. Four wheeled coaches were then popular, requiring regular changes of horses. Buonconvento met these needs by offering coaching facilities, stabling, and fresh horses, in addition to her inns and taverns. A weekly market began of livestock and agricultural projects, including the of the Val d’Arbia. The stage set for growing prosperity, so began a long period of calm trading in the area.

The course of Sienese art also attests to the area’s independence and wealth. New artists such as the great master Sassetta, though attracted to the new Renaissance art in Florence, chose to pursue their own Sienese course, focusing on a fluidity and elegance of form and compositional space. Sano di Pietro (1406—1481) was a pupil of Sassetta and several of his masterpieces were commissioned for churches and oratories in the area. They now hang in room three of Buonconvento’s art museum.

The museum also includes works by other great painters of the time, Matteo di Giovanni and Guidoccio Cozzarelli. The richness of the local collection of the period is evidence of the continuing prosperity

- 251 - of Siena and the prominence of the area in which Buonconvento held sway.

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The Museo d’Arte Sacra della Val

d’Arbia inside Buonconvento’s Art Nouveau Palazzo Ricci Soccini is well worth a visit as it is among the better small art museums in Tuscany, but delightfully free of crowds. The museum boasts a series of masterpieces by artists of the Sienese school, collected from small churches all around the Val d’Arbia. Among the most precious are a Madonna and Child by Duccio da Buoninsegna and another by Pietro Lorenzetti. One room is dedicated to works of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, representing artists including Bartolomeo di David and Francesco Vanni. Many works highlight the greatness of the Sienese school in the 1500s, with artists Rutilio Manetti and Bernardino Mei among others.

Open: Tuesday / Thursday / Saturday: 10 a.m.—12 p.m., Saturday: 2 p.m.—4 p.m., and Sunday: 9 a.m.—1 p.m. (winter hours: Thursday and Friday from 2-5, Saturday and Sunday 10-1, 3-5).

Contact: 05778070190

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The Sacking of Buonconvento and the End of the

The end of the Sienese republic was dramatically played out in

- 252 - the area as its outlying strongholds were besieged and crushed by invading armies. In the middle of the 16th century Charles V, King of Spain, Burgundy, the , and Austria, and Holy Roman Emperor, an ally of Cosimo de Medici, attacked the city of Siena and her satellite fortress towns. His forces occupied Buonconvento in 1553. It was briefly spared when Charles had to move his army to the defense of Naples against the Turks, but he quickly returned and reoccupied the town. Siena fell in 1555, but her government fled to Montalcino, where it resisted from the Fortezza until 1559. Her stubborn resistance merely prolonged the devastation of Buonconvento as occupying armies attacked Montalcino.

After its fall, Siena was never again an independent republic, but rather a part of the Duchy of Tuscany under the absolute rule of the Medici of Florence. Buonconvento was still a stopping point on the Via Francigena but no longer a castle defending Siena. She turned back to agricultural production and the care and service of wayfarers.

These great events, burnings, and sackings must have at the very least had an unsettling effect on the lives of the inhabitants at Finocchieto. There is no mention of the destruction of the castles (the one at Bibbiano had been strengthened in 1515 by the Borghesi) or the villa La Torre. Presumably, invading armies were not too concerned with every country home belonging to Sienese patricians. They did plenty of damage to their bottom line, taking their capital cities and towns. The times must have still been terrifying in the country, filled by long periods when it was necessary to repair the castles for comparative safety and therefore forcibly neglect their crops and animals. Invading and besieging armies would have also sequestered their goods and the sights and sounds of the burning and sacking of the town below and later Montalcino would have been unbearable.

- 253 - ◊ ◊ ◊

Siena Indebted: Siena has never forgotten Montalcino’s brave resistance in the face of her conquerors. To this day, the Sienese afford the town pride of place in the corteo, the Montalcino flag leads the great procession that precedes the running of each Palio race in recognition of their staunch allegiance. Visiting Montalcino, it is possible to visit the fortress, built in 1361 by Mino Foresi and Domenico di Feo. Now housing Montalcino’s best Enoteca for Brunello, the Fortress offers the possibility of climbing its towers for amazing views of the surrounding countryside.

• Fortezza di Montalcino

Open: winter: 9 a.m.—6 p.m., summer 9 a.m.—8 p.m. Admission: nominal, and wa vered when accompanied with a wine tasting or purchase Contact: 0577849211

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A view from inside the Fortress in Montalcino.

- 254 - Bibbiano and the

Raffaelo Petrucci, the nephew of Pandolfo Petrucci, who ruled Siena as a tyranny from 1487 to 1522, lived at Bibbiano from 1515 to 1522. The family owned the castle, the villa La Torre, and Finocchieto. The Petrucci were known thugs and the word tyrant or depot accompanies every reference to Pandolfo on record. Pandolfo’s men fatally wounded his father in law, Niccolò Borghese in 1500 as he was returning from prayer in the cathedral in Siena. Raffaelo was not unlike his uncle, heavy handed and corrupt. In 1516, he was sequestering by force properties around Siena from the Abbey of San Galgano to the archbishop’s lands at Vescovado in order to create prizes for political patronage.

When Pandolfo died, the Villa at La Torre appears to have been inherited by the Borghese, through Pandolfo’s widow. An illustrious old Sienese family, the Borghese had links to Buonconvento, where they had built their Palazzo on via Soccini in the 1300s. The Palazzo Soccini can be found at numbers 7 to 15, next to the Biblioteca Comunale. Their characteristic coat of arms with an eagle above and a dragon below appears on the façade of their Palazzo and on the front of the current Town Hall in Buonconvento.

Marc’Antonio Borghese lived at Bibbiano during his adolescence, but moved to Rome where the family became known as Borghesi. His son Camillo was elected cardinal in 1596 and Pope Paul V in 1605. The family became . The Villa Borghesi and its gardens in Rome were designed in 1613 by the Flemish architect Jan van Santen as a pleasure palace for Cardinal Scipione Borghesi, nephew of Pope Paul V. Scipione was a great collector and the patron of Bernini, whose works take pride of place in the modern museum. There too is Pauline Borghesi, the wife of Prince Camillo Borghesi and the sister of , sculpted by Canova in 1804. The prince thought the work so provocative that he kept it under wraps, though he did not hesitate to leave his wife when the French were driven out of Italy.

- 255 - This princely family did not ignore their property at Bibbiano. From the very beginning they sought to improve their holdings there. Raffaelo Petrucci commissioned the great Sienese architect and artist Petruzzi (Siena 1481- Rome 1536) to restore the castle, early in the 16th century. Petruzzi had already worked in Rome, where he built the Palazzo Farnesina and the Villa Chigi, gaining the admiration of the contemporary artist and critic, Giorgio Vasari. At the sack of Rome by the army of Charles V in 1527, Petruzzi fled back to Siena where he became the official architect to the Republic. Then he was hired to refashion the Castle at Bibbiano, as well as other local projects, including the classically proportioned villas at Armena and at Resta. After the death of , Petruzzi worked on St. Peter’s Church in the Vatican.

The Borghese also may have contributed artistically to the area with a painting, commissioned in the first decade of the 16th century, by Andrea di Piccinelli, called Il Brescianino because he came from Brescia. This lovely painting, reminiscent of both Leonardo and Raphael, was hung in the chapel of the villa La Torre and shows the Madonna nursing the Christ child while the saints John the Baptist and Jerome look on. The painting now hangs in the museum in Buonconvento.

Later in the century, Ventura Salimbeni (1568—1613) who had lived for a long time in Rome, made the unusual temple shaped tabernacle for the church of San Lorenzo at Bibbiano. It depicts the Christ helped by an angel and has an early baroque flavor. Meanwhile his half brother, Francesco Vanni (1564—1610) painted an altarpiece for the church, of the Madonna and Child with Saint Lawrence and Saint . These works are now on view in the museum and are testament to the richness family estates brought to the localities around Buonconvento.

The Division of the Bibbiano Estate at the End of the 17th Century

- 256 - Between 1522 and 1697 the estate at Bibbiano changed hands among the Borghese family, although farming always continued in the way of the mezzadria. In the late 17th century the Mignanelli family had purchased all the houses and land at Finocchieto together with those of the villa La Torre. The Chigi family held the land around the Castle at Bibbiano, with the Tancredi already in possession of the Castel Tancredi and Castel Rosa in the Piccolomini family.

Research published in 1990 examines the results of an edict by the Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III, to raise money by a universal tax on all poderi. These documents show that in the late 17th century, while the Mignanelli owned most of the land around La Torre, the Borghese family still owned one podere at Finocchieto itself and one called Fontanella which has since been destroyed (Appendix, 1821 map).

This is a highly suggestive development in understanding the story of Finocchieto. The Borghesi who clearly sold the Castle and the villa La Torre some time before this, may have held on to the podere where the main house is now at Finocchieto. Therefore, lacking another base in the area, might have constructed the villa, courtyard, and chapel that we see today!

Alternatively, the Mignanelli, who bought out the Borghesi before 1692 but sold the villa La Torre before 1778, may have had the villa built at Finocchieto to furnish themselves with a suitable house and estate center in the area.

The historical record is incomplete and sometimes difficult to interpret. By 1778, the tax records for Buonconvento include a Cavaliere Scipione Borghese as owner of fourteen poderi at Bibbiano, and Alfonso Mignanelli with only four, all at Finocchieto. The Chigi owned the same number of poderi, at the Castle, while a new owner, Bernardo Savini held eight.

The switch of ownership at Finocchieto was now complete and the Mignanelli were proprietors, although they had sold the villa La

- 257 - Torre perhaps to the Savini or even back to the Borghese, who had increased their holdings at Bibbiano since 1692.

The Mignanelli were an old Sienese family as we have seen from the contract mentioned earlier. By the late 17th century, they owned extensive lands in the district, 22 poderi in total, including holdings at Montalcino, , Lucignano d’Arbia, and Radi. In 1692, the Borghese were still large landowners themselves, with 62 poderi in villages and localities in the . Their reasons for selling at Bibbiano and perhaps later repurchasing the villa La Torre are unclear.

The two families, with centuries of connections in Siena and around, must have been well known to each other. Back in 1577 for example, Fabio Mignanelli, who had been cardinal and archbishop of Siena, died and was replaced by Camillo Borghese. In 1587 members of both families sat on the ruling council of Siena, the Concistoro. The rarefied world of the nobility in Siena was not large and these families appear to have shuffled their portfolios of properties among themselves with ease to suit their current needs. For a long time the Borghese were committed to Bibbiano but at one point, probably the death of the last interested member, their inheritors sold the last of the holdings there.

At the present understanding, it seems the best-fit scenario that the Borghese built the Villa at Finocchieto as their new headquarters. This explains the likely late 17th century date of the villa’s major construction. Moreover it explains the presence of a major piece of evidence, the Borghesi family coat of arms above the door upstairs that now leads to the dining room. The Borghese coat of arms already appears twice in Buonconvento, on the façade of their palazzo on via Soccini, and in the middle of the façade of the Palazzo Comunale on the same street. Another coat of arms on a later door, downstairs in Finocchieto, is degraded and difficult to read. It is possible that it belongs to the Mignanelli because of its three stripes, but the resemblance stops there.

- 258 - A further impetus to build may have come from the consolidation of properties into single administrative units called aziende around 1700. Aziende were run by the families’ agents, allowing for the centralization of administrative activities like crop storage and marketing. Whatever was the ultimate motivation for building the casa padronale at Finocchieto, it is clear that that was the first time in its history that Finocchieto was held independently from both of its neighboring estates, although it was still part of major holdings in the province.

An Audit Illuminates Town Life in 1676

As the Mignanelli were moving to Finocchieto, the auditor for Grand Duke Cosimo III de Medici was sent to inspect the towns, landholdings, and castles of the territories of the city of Siena. Bartolomeo Gherdini made copious notes and often wrote comments that today offer us a vision of 17th century life. Although he does not refer separately to Bibbiano, he describes life in the comune, the town and administrative district of Buonconvento, and how the outlying districts, called comunelli were run at the time when Mignanelli was buying up the land.

Buonconvento, he writes, was a place of bad air and fogs due to its situation at the confluence of the rivers. Rich people lived in their country villas or in the city. Some 382 people lived in the town with a further 3080 in the districts, which at the time included all the land between Buonconvento and Siena, and Monterongriffoli beyond Percenna to the east.

Buonconvento grew oil for local consumption but traded wine, particularly a white Arbia wine for which it was known. It also traded grain and animals in the weekly markets at Vescovado and Siena. In the town ditch outside the walls, the inhabitants grew mulberry trees for the cultivation of silk worms.

- 259 - Responsibility for the administration of criminal justice was carried out by a captain at Montalcino, while a magistrate called a podestà administered civil justice from within the town. This magistrate was a resident of town, chosen by lot annually by the noble houses of Siena. This person chose a notary to work with him, who was in turn supported by a town hall servant and a messenger. The work was under scrutiny of the mayor of the town and earned 526 lire from the town council and outlying districts. An administrator / treasurer or camarlengo coordinated each district on its own, including Bibbiano. The names of all the holdings went into a hat and the eldest statesmen of the chosen locality pulled out the name of the representative. That person collected taxes from each of the local communities and thus they were funneled to the center.

The town council consisted of a mayor, treasurer (camerlengo and later gonfaloniere), and five governors (priori). Many minor posts included wardens, assessors, peace keepers, and sgravatori, or debt relievers. It appears that local administration required a good deal of manpower in the late 17th.

Life was still haphazard for the sick. There was no doctor within the walls. The hospital was called Sant’Antonio or SS Annunziata, but without a doctor the very ill went to Cuna or Tressa. Education was more ordered. A schoolmaster, usually a junior priest was chosen by the council and funded by the town. Gherdini lists all the artisan traders: two shoe and boot makers, two blacksmiths, a dyer, two tailors, a linen maker, a carpenter, two builders, two wine sellers and grocers, two delicatessens, and two bakers, while the only mill was a the Ponte d’Arbia.

Buonconvento held three annual fairs: for Saint Giacomo and Saint Phillip, patron saints of Borgofurello, Saints Peter and Paul, patrons of the parish church, and All Saints. The church was of the archbishopric diocese of Siena. The city also had two lay or secular societies, each with its own oratorio and recreation center.

Though he does not tell us directly about life at Finocchieto,

- 260 - Gherardini augments the information from that of a basic audit, allowing us to link the farm with the hamlet and greater town.

Napoleon Divides Buonconvento

In 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte entered Florence, absorbing the Duchy of Tuscany into the until 1807. In 1808 he installed his sister Elisa Bacciochi as the Grand Duchess of Tuscany.

Also in 1808, Buonconvento’s administration of all the lands in the Val d’Arbia ended. By decree on December 1, the then French regional council adjusted the territories of Buonconvento, dividing the Arbia area and creating the new comune council of Monteroni d’Arbia. The order reduced Buonconvento’s population by more than half.

Rapport between the and the new comune of Monteroni was initially ill tempered. There was a disagreement, conducted in writing between the mayors, over the allocation of Bibbiano and Piana, which Monteroni claimed were on its side of the divide. They remained with Buonconvento, who would appeal for reunification on several occasions. The division of 1808 remained and the two separate comuni exist today.

Buonconvento and the Grand Tour

Travelers to the area came not to steep themselves in local farming culture, but to see the artistic heritage of the region. For the well educated and aristocratic people of northern Europe the “Grand Tour” was a chance to experience the great masterpieces of the classical world and the Renaissance, with many spending months and even years traveling as an intellectual pursuit. They came

- 261 - in numbers to Buonconvento, still a day out of Siena and a good stopping point to see the frescoes at Monte Oliveto Maggiore. Many of them were the English, who usually concluded their tour in Italy.

Buonconvento at this time boasted an Inn called the Cavallo Inglese or English Horse and another, L’Albergo della grande Europa. There are many accounts by those who stayed, not many of them favorable. In 1775 the Marquis de Sade noted the beauty of the road from Siena to Buonconvento but proclaimed the food he ate in town detestable. Evelyn passed through in 1644 and Smollet in 1765, while Hutton cites an even more appalling experience by an Englishwoman in 1817. Here is a sample of her description:

“Night closed in on us long before we reached our destined place of rest, the wretched osteria in the still more wretched village of Buonconvento… its half starved looking denizens would not admit us into the humble pigsty in which they wallowed themselves… we were ushered up an old ghastly staircase, along which the wind whistled mournfully, into an open hall, the raftered roof of which was overhung with cobwebs and the stone floor was deep in filth…”

Hutton does not enlighten us as to who she was but perhaps the lady protested too much. Charles Dickens, not someone slow to make social observations and speedily translate them into comment, contented himself with a description of the menu at his tavern. Apparently he chose from minestrone or chicken soup, boiled chicken, stuffed game or roast, and cheese.

A Portrait of Life in Finocchieto: Farm,

- 262 - Villa, and Courtyard in 1821

In 1821, there are at last documents that indicate the holdings and way of life at Finocchieto in considerable detail. In this year, the land registry ordered by Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, lists Alfonso Mignanelli and the brothers of Alessandro Mignanelli as the owners of Finocchieto. The same register shows the villa La Torre and its lands owned by the Bianchi family and the Castle at Bibbiano belonging to the Chigi.

The Mignanelli owned extensive properties and lands at Bibbiano, around Resta on the other side of the Via Cassia, and elsewhere. Therefore, Finocchieto, though now independent of its neighbors, remained part of a great estate nonetheless. The villa may have been already used to house the families of contadini, the farmworkers. No church or chapel is mentioned, though careful note is made of them elsewhere. We must take it that the chapel (now Santa Teresa) had already been given over to domestic use. Given that the use of the chapel had changed, it is likely that that of the villa had as well.

The villa is present on historical record for the first time, as a fattoria, villa e corte, an agricultural estate with a mansion and courtyard. Olives and vineyards grew around the villa. Beside it stood two case coloniche or farmhouses, with various outhouses, a vegetable garden, a capanna or shack and an aia or threshing floor.

Unfortunately there is no large scale drawing from the time of the Villa Finocchieto. Later registers of the 1860s show more clearly the villa with its courtyard arched on three sides and the fourth open to the road.

A further four farmhouses made up the estate at Finocchieto: the Podere Sterpata with its own capanna, the Podere Guado with a well down by the ford, and two houses that have since vanished, the Podere Fontanella and a farmhouse with a threshing floor and outhouses on opposite sides of the road that leads down towards Podere Guado.

- 263 - The Podere Vena that belonged to the Mignanelli in the 1690s was then owned by the Bianchi family, forming part of the La Torre estate. The Podere now known as Immacolata had not yet been built.

In addition to these holdings a Finocchieto, the same Mignanelli owned a big chunk of land near the 16th century villa at Resta (now home to friends of Finocchieto, Anna Lisa Tempestini and Claudio Basla).

It is worth mentioning this here as it was separate from the Finocchieto estate but only a short distance away across the ford over the Ombrone, across the Via Cassia, and a short way up the hill. The Mignanelli are listed as owning two poderi, Sala and Saletta, a fornace or brick kiln, and a chapel, as well as a mixture of woodland, grain fields, pasture and vineyards.

The register not only lists the buildings but also the use of each field, painting a picture of the landscape at the time. At Finocchieto, half of the land was given over to grain (the land is described as lavorativo nudo, but the listing was carried out in October when the grain fields are always bare), roughly one quarter to pasture, and the final quarter to vineyards or vineyards mixed with apples, blackberries, and olives. Small vegetable gardens surrounded the houses and the farmers cultivated a long stretch of mulberry trees down by the Ombrone to raise silk worms as Buonconventini had done for centuries.

The fields would have looked very different. Today’s vineyards are far more ordered and not mixed with other crops as was the way during the mezzadria. At Finocchieto, the vines were mixed with olives, apple trees, and blackberries. The grain fields, without modern pesticides, were hot with the color of bright red poppies and many other weeds. With the end of the mezzadria, so went the habit of growing a bit of silk on the side, and the mulberries have long gone.

- 264 - Mulberry trees grow well around rivers, making the area around Buonconvento renowned for its silk production. The mulberry leaves feed worms, which grow fat and spin big cocoons. In 1821, everyone at Finocchieto would have raised some for themselves and some for the owners. Raising silkworms is laborious but was a common way to earn a little extra, often to buy a piglet for the family. It was especially arduous because the work had to happen in May and June, coinciding with the hay making. The saying goes that the silkworms became padroni di casa or heads of the household and a bedroom often had to be dismantled to make space for the worms.

At the beginning of May the farm workers were called to the farm headquarters and given a handful of tiny grey worms which they put in a small box. At home they had to be kept warm near the fire, where they would grow quickly, necessitating frequent forays for leaves come rain or shine. The worms were covered with leaves and every four to five days they ate their way out and a new larger bed had to be made. By mid-June, they had changed color and stopped eating. The farmers then prepared sticks of broom to simulate trees and picked mature grubs, setting them there to spin their cocoons. Attached to the twigs, they began to regurgitate their silk and a few days later, their cocoons were ready. Often the worms were lost to disease or if the farmer did not pay enough attention they matured too quickly or too slowly. Those who persevered earned cash rewards. The lands around Buonconvento and Montalcino were rich with mulberries at this time, making their production of silk the highest in the Sienese area.

Every podere had an animal stall on the ground floor. Animals and humans lived under the same roof, with cows on the bottom for milking and producing young. The pigsty was built outside, long and low. The cowherd got up first to do the milking and clean the stall, then took the cows outside to drink at the trough if it was warm enough. Younger boys often tended the pigs in the fields, frequently when they should have been at school. A month prior to the slaughter, the workers took great care to feed them well, making

- 265 - their hams sweet for Christmas.

On the first Sunday after the killing and curing, the family held a supper called the Sporcellata, to which they invited all their relatives. The traditional menu was amazing: First, a chicken soup followed by a boiled chicken. Next followed a huge frying pan of sweetbreads and other bits covered with sauce into which one dipped bread. A large roll of belly pork, or pancetta followed, roasted en croute and flavored with rosemary and garlic. As if that weren’t enough, the fegatelli were next, a dish of pig livers chopped and flavored with fennel, found on many Tuscan menus today. Afterwards came the migliaccio or blood sausage, cooked in a frying pan.

Among other animals, each podere kept a noisy flock of chickens, geese, ducks, pigeons, and even rabbits. Their maintenance was the job of the farmer’s wife, with production divided among farmer and proprietor the same as with crops. To keep things accounted for, farm agents often kept tallies. One of the more skilled tasks for a farm wife was to castrate the extra cockerels, a deed followed with a special dinner called scapponata, which needs no translation.

This was the way of life among the mezzadria, which continued at Finocchieto until the years after the Second World War.

Florence as Capital After the Reunification of Italy

The Grand Tour was suspended in the middle of the 19th century as the republican Giovane Italia movement of Giuseppe Mazzini and the nationalists represented by the Piedmontese had become a serious threat to the status quo, then the rule of the of Lorraine.

The year of revolutions in 1848 saw Tuscans joining the cause. Leopold, the Austrian Grand Duke of Tuscany at first fled but later

- 266 - returned with his Austrian troops to keep order. Meanwhile in the north, Camillo Cavour persuaded Napoleon III’s France to fight with the Piedmontese and these joint armies succeeded in sweeping all that was before them. Leopold refused to abdicate, but did leave Florence for some time. The following year the Tuscans voted to unite with the Kingdom of Piedmont.

Starting in 1865, Florence was capital of the new Italy until 1870 when Rome was captured by the Piedmontese and the unification of Italy was complete.

The Mignanelli Family Farms Finocchieto and Serves the Community

On June 18, 1841 Bartolomeo d’Alessandro Mignanelli took over the farm at Finocchieto from Alfonso. Bartolomeo was the mayor of Buonconvento, but probably did not make it his home, for in 1867 when he purchased the estate of La Torre from Giulio di Mario Bianchi, he was resident at a manor in Lucignano d’Arbia. He is referred to as Monciatti-Mignanelli, also described as having served the position of Capitolo della Metropolitana di Siena. Once again, Finocchieto was joined to the neighboring estate and great house.

From 1880 to the end of the century Lattanzio Marri Mignanelli ran the Finocchieto estate along with the rest of the family holdings, which he had inherited from Bartolomeo, likely through marriage into the family. The name Marri appears in Buonconvento’s history in 1809 when a Lattanzio Marri was a surgeon in the town. This later Lattanzio was Mayor of Buonconvento in 1897 and steered the committee for the building of the railway for many years.

From 1897 on, the Marri name appears in Finocchieto records in combination with Monciatti, Raffaelo, and Marri’s wife, Settimia who in her turn inherited the estate in 1914. The same documents

- 267 - always refer to Settimia’s father as Baldassare, perhaps the last of the Mignanelli brothers.

Lattanzio Marri Mignanelli made some radical changes by selling the poderi and land around Resta except for the brick kiln, which he had perhaps sold previously. He also had important works done at La Torre, increasing the villa’s size in 1883. The work was commissioned from the architect Giuseppe Partini, who also redesigned the Piazza dei Salimbeni in Siena, giving the headquarters of the Monte dei Paschi bank a new façade.

In the years after unification, Buonconvento prospered as an agricultural town. In 1854, the locals began an annual agricultural show that was considered one of the most important events in Tuscany for livestock. Today’s annual Sagra della Val d’Arbia has echoes of this event.

A New Century and a New Style in Buonconvento

The first years of the 20th century saw new buildings andthe refurbishment of some old ones in the modern Art Nouveau style, called “Liberty” in Italy. In 1907 Corrado Ricci inherited the family palazzo on the via Soccini in Buonconvento. Deciding it needed a makeover, he contracted the young architect Gino Chierici, probably at the advice of his nephew Francesco Ricci who was an impassioned exponent for the new style. The resultant palazzo, though badly bombed during World War II, has been restored to its former glory and now houses the art museum. Thus, its beautiful decoration and original bathroom are still enjoyed by the public.

At the same time, various other buildings in the new style sprung up around town. The infant’s school by Marchetti, the Villa della Rondinella, and the Palazzo Farnetani are good examples and add to the distinctive flavor of Art Nouveau in Tuscany. The Ricci were

- 268 - prime proponents of the new movement, although Marri Mignanelli gave the land for the infants school.

The Coming of the Railroad

The story of the railway at Buonconvento is one of long negotiation, discussion, and changing plans as rival towns sought to win their claims on the potential route. Before World War I, a French firm was awarded the concession to build the line running from Siena to , passing through Buonconvento, , and joining the Pisa line. The work was suspended by the war in 1914 and the post-war contract had to be renegotiated as the French firm had hit financial difficulties. The Italian government finally completed the work in 1927 and opened the railway.

War, Bombardment, and the End of a Way of Life

In some more industrialized parts of Tuscany, and indeed among rural communities too, the end of World War I brought great discontent. Returning soldiers along with workers who had joined the factories in the war effort were now unemployed. They demonstrated and stirred up more discontent, in effect nurturing the nascent fascist movement. The economic downturn in the thirties added to this tendency, but around Buonconvento, the farms and the mezzadria continued and changes were slow to arrive.

World War II saw the bombing of many Tuscan cities and towns. Buonconvento lost its southern medieval town gate, a portion of its town walls, to German bombardment in 1944. The attack damaged various other buildings within the walls as well. There is plenty of

- 269 - documentation regarding the war and the Italian Resistance’s part in the war, locally.

Even post war, the mezzadria system stayed in place. It wasn’t until the 1950s and 60s that a major shift in the centuries old farming way of life took place. Iris Origo, for example, describes a journey from La Foce to Siena as taking all day and usually meriting an overnight stay. A shopping trip to nearby was only worth undertaking on market day. Country people were mostly self sufficient. Soon after the war, however, came tractors and other machines to work the land. Also new were specialist crops, ending the days of small fields where vines intermingled with blackberries and replacing them with big, single crop fields of corn, wheat, and sunflowers. Specialist vineyards multiplied around Montalcino, with the popularity of Brunello.

The contadini found it increasingly difficult to manage in a cash economy. Those young enough moved to towns on the industrial belt along the , attracted by salaries in factories. Many Buonconventini were laid off from nearby estates and did not work again.

Others moved in. Sardinian shepherds brought sheep and made pecorino cheese and ricotta. People from Rome, Milan, and other countries bought holiday homes.

Meanwhile, the estate workers of Finocchieto left, some simply moving down the hill to Buonconvento. One lady in her 90s in 2002 was finishing out her days in Buonconvento. She described that the villa and poderi had been full of estate workers and their families, living very active and sociable lives. She could not remember not being busy and surrounded by others although she was glad to have left as a girl, because the numbers dwindled slowly until only one man stayed with his dogs in the 1980s. It would have been like living a slow death, she thought.

For the first two decades of the last century, the Bibbiano estate of La

- 270 - Torre and Finocchieto belonged to Raffaelo Monciatti. From 1914, Settimia Bruzzichelli, Marri’s widow is listed as heir, although she may have been joint heir and cannot have lived long, for the same year Mario Costanti inherited the estate and became its proprietor. He married Teresa Nozzoli and together with her sister Anna, they lived in La Torre until they died. Anna lived until the 1980s. In 1985, Rudolfo Parenti purchased La Torre and Finocchieto, selling Finocchieto to John Phillips in 2000, in whose care it would begin the next millennium.

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