If you leave the village along ‘via Trento’, you find – before the cemetery, on your left hand – a white country road called “Belagaio Road”.

Belagaio is an ancient feudal castle in the middle of the wood, that was a property of various powerful families of the area: Aldobrandeschi family, S. Lorenzo al Lanzo Abbey, Ardengheschi family and, finally, Grottanelli family (*1).

Surely it was a strategic point in Farma valley, very important also for the numerous ironworks of the area. In 1800 it was changed by Grottanelli family in a farm-house but it still has the fascination of an old castle.

Actually Belagaio Castle is a farm of the State Forest Department and it is in the middle of a wildlife reserve (*2) which also houses an experimental and didactic pilot enterprise for the protection and the diffusion of Maremma horses.

Just under the castle there is an interesting cave (The Tomb); you may visit il only with an authorization of the forest guards and guided by a speleologist.

The road from Casal di Pari to Belagaio castle – about 8 kilometres – has a particular history: it was built in the fifthies with the money appropriated by the italian government to help unemployed people, very numerous in these little countries after the second world war.

It was not easy to obtain money from the Government. The budget to build Belagaio Road was obtained thanks to the efforts of the mayor and the deputy mayor of the municipal district of Civitella Paganico (Mr. Carlo Gremignani and Mr. Ulisse Rustichini respectively) and the cooperation of my father, Lidio Leoncini.

In those years the little farms managed by a single family were in decline; the same for the cutting of the trees, the charcoal manufacture (owing to a lower demand of this fuel) and for the mining (*3) of antimony, argentiferous lead and copper (mines were closed for exhausting).

A charcoal under construction        The coal shed

Between 1950 and 1960 many young people emigrated searching a work in the cities in which industry, building, tourism and many services were growing; some families preferred to move to a city also to make easier their children to attend higher studies; at Casal di Pari, in fact, there was only the primary school.

The workmen who built Belagaio Road lived at Casal di Pari, Pari and in the surrounding country-sides and they came to work by feet or by bicycle.

The road-bed was completely hand made; the only available “technologies” were hoes, picks, mallets, hand-carts and gunpowder to make the mines which served to explode the rocks hindering the layout or to get the stones for the road-bed.

Most of the workmen were illiterates and their day salary was a few coppers and foodstuffs (mostly “pasta” and honey). My father directed the road yard and paid the workmen; at the ground floor of my house there was the store of the foodstuffs.

Belagaio Road walks though a very nice wood, full of the typical plants of the area: maremma maquis (arbutus, broom …), oaks, ilexes, cork-oaks, ash-trees, hornbeams, beeches, yew-trees, chestnut-trees … There are also many pine-trees but these are not typical plants of the area: they were planted about sixty years ago, after a big fire which destroyed in 1944 a larg part of the wood between Roccastrada and Casal di Pari; it was made a reafforestation with pines for their quick growth. But pines spread too much and now the State Forest Department gives a money contribution to cut some pines and to take care of the typical plants of the area.

Once many trees were very important for the daily life of people and animals.

During the second world war people dried, roasted and powdered acorns to make a powder like “coffee”.

Oaks, holm oaks, and cork-oaks beared acorns for swine (and the swine meat was an important food).

 oak      holm   chestnu

 cork

For a very long time the chestnut tree was the life of many peasant families. The fruits were dried into drying rooms (you can see still in the wood some ruined drying rooms) and then were powdered in the mills. With the powdered chestnuts, in the winter, peasants prepared a dish called “polenta”. Chestnuts, like acorns, were also used to nourish the swine. Also its wood was very important to build houses and furnishing and for winter heating.

From the outer part of the trunk of cork-trees it was extracted the cork. The cork trade is still practised.

The broom – very plentyful in the woods surrounding the village – is a very important plant: it is used to make brooms (to day less than some years ago), fences, sheds … Its root, very nice and hard, is used to make pipes.

Near the village there is a briar pipes factory. This work, already present in the XIX century, was interrupted and only recently it began again.

In the wood you may find also the birch and the yew tree. In the wood there are also many wild animals: wild boars, roc-bucks, fallow-deer, hares, foxes … but it’s difficult to meet them by day. If you are lucky and you are able to walk very silently, you can meet them at dawn or at sunset, mostly near water-courses. Shootimg season is from september to february: they hunt hares, pheasants, wild boars …

You may find also very rare (and protected) animals: the otter, the marten, the bats, the polecat, the beech-marten, the wild cat, the fallow deer, the moufflon …

 owl

In Farma valley, near Belagaio castle, there is a little lake (Troscia pool) in which you may find the alpin triton. There are also many birds: the nuthatch, the tawny owl, the owlet, the owl, the hawk…

In autumn you can find in the wood many kinds of mushrooms: boletus, agarics, chanterelles …

From 1976 in the first week end of october at Casal di Pari there is the boletus feast.

 NOTES

(*1) The word “Belagaio” comes from the latin word “Pelagus”, the marsh once existing in the subsidence in front of the castle.

(*2) If you like to visit the castle you have to ask to the Forest Department (t. 0566 40019).

(*3) Casal di Pari is the native village of Aurelio Galleppini (Galep), the designer of Tex Willer. His family, in fact, moved from Romagna to Casal di Pari where his father, a minimg engineer, was the director of some mines.

Italian nursery rhyme:

“Ambarabà butt coconut

three owls on the dresser

making love

the Doctor’s daughter

The doctor became ill

Ambarabà butt coconut “

The bird that we should lose the pen
I’ve got I lost a loved one.

Who goes in the Maremma and loose water bona
Loses the lady and never finds it,

Who goes in the Maremma and loose the mountain
Lady loses and gains nothing.

Damn Maremma Maremma
Maremma is damned and who loves her.

Still my trembling heart when you go
because I’m afraid you’re never coming.

(Bitter Maremma, Tuscan Folk Song)

THE ETRUSCAN TOMBS OF BADGER AND SCARAB BEETLE

In 2007 the cultural association “Odysseus” (young archaeologists free working), in cooperation with municipality of Civitella-Paganico and the Tuscan Office for archaeological heritage, discovered, between Casal di Pari and Casenovole, an intact etruscan tomb (III-I century b.C.). Inside there were human bones and cinerary vases containing hunman ashes. It is a great discovery. With the ashes there werw also golden jewels and bronze coins.

 In 2009, in the same area, the archaeological association discovered another tomb (IV-III century b.C.). The tomb, already profaned in ancient periods, contained many well preserved skeletons. Inside there were also a golden ear-ring and a golden ring with a vitreous scarab beetle.   

Very probabily there is a complete necropolis. The Etruscan tombs are near an old last century cemetery: it seems to mean a continuity of the holy area.

The etruscan village was probabily over the necropolis on the hill where now you see the medieval castle of Casenovole.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION  “…and around Casale WOODS AND JOBS” conceived by Paola Leoncini e Guido Verniani – photographs by Alfredo Lunghini

Exhibition set up on the occasion of 2009 mushrooms feast

THE WOOD AROUND CASALE DI PARI

Once the wood in high Maremma was the the protagonist of economic and social life. It supplied brushwood and food for people and animals and it was the hideway of wild animals which were hunted and integrated the meagre meals. From XVII century around the village there is the “Bandita of Ornate”, a wide wood still belonging to the descendants of the eleven families who founded Casal di Pari.  Ulisse Rustichini guided us to know the history of the wood and the many problems to keep it for next people.   The show and these pages are also a homage to his passion and his work. 

THE EXTRACTION AND THE WORKMANSHIP OF “CIOCCO” TO MAKE PIPES : THE REBIRTH OF AN ANCIENT ART

One of the activities connected to the wood is the extraction of the “ciocco” to make pipes. Many years ago, before the first world war, many people at Casal di Pari practised this work. They also made pipe outlines and boiled them. They sold the autlines in Italy and abroad.  This work, left for many years, was recovered about twenty years ago and to day Casale (with Manno factory) is an excellence centre.  The extraction of the “ciocco” is a dangerous, tiring and difficult work;  to make pipe outlines is a great art. 

The “ciocco” , extracted from briar, is a round wooden mass emerging from the ground and placed between the root and the trunk. Italian “ciocco” (from Sardinia, Liguria, Calabria and Tuscany) is considered very good.  Briar grows up in hill  areas preferring silicon grounds: the silicon makes “ciocco” fireproof.

The “ciocco” must grow up 30 years to reach the minimum size. To extract it you cut the tree and next tree will be ready after 30 years.

 After the extraction the “ciocco” is cleaned (the workmen remove the roots, the earth and the stones) and put it in damp warehouses. 

Then the workmen cut it with a circular saw. This is a dangerous, difficult and artistic handwork.

 After the pipe outlines are boiled 12/15 hours in a large copper boiler to eliminate  the tannin and to make a better colour.

Then they are dried  indoors and put to season into jute sacks. 

Many tanks to Ulisse Rustichini (our guide to explore the wood around Casale), Adolfo Emanuele (the workman who extracts the “ciocco”), Domenico Manno (the owner of the pipe outlines factory),  Filippo, Girolamo, Giuseppe and Vasile (the workmen who create the pipe outlines)

The Village fairs are a real event in the small towns of the Tuscan countryside and are an opportunity to discover the cuisine, products and ancient traditions.

Porcini Mushroom Festival In Casal di Pari – first and second weekend in October – is held the festival of mushrooms. You can enjoy great food!

Festival Alta Maremma in Civitella Marittima – last weekend of August.

Granocchia Paganico Festival – first weekend in September.

Sausage Festival in Pari – last weekend in September..

NUVOLE IN TOSCANA : il fumetto toscano in mostra – 2a edizione della mostra biennale del fumetto in Maremma

Casal di Pari, 11/12/13 settembre 2009

Da venerdì 11 a domenica 13 settembre 2009 i lavori di alcuni dei più famosi fumettisti toscani saranno in mostra a Casal di Pari. Il legame tra Casale e il fumetto risale al 1917, anno in cui nel piccolo borgo nacque Aurelio Galleppini, in arte GALEP, il creatore grafico del personaggio di Tex Willer.

Nel 2007, in occasione del novantesimo anniversario della nascita di Galep, Casale gli ha dedicato una mostra retrospettiva che ne ripercorreva 50 anni di carriera. Il successo dell’evento ha ispirato gli organizzatori a trasformarlo in un appuntamento biennale legato al mondo del fumetto.

Quest’anno le sale allestite negli antichi edifici del centro di Casale ospiteranno le tavole di affermati disegnatori toscani.

A margine della mostra e degli eventi collegati, spettacoli, iniziative, enogastronomia.

EVENTI DELLA MANIFESTAZIONE

Inaugurazione: venerdì 11 ore 17,30. Saranno presenti ALBERTO PAGLIARO e ROSSANO ROSSI

Incontro dibattito con gli artisti: sabato 12 ore 17,30. Parteciperanno MARCO BIANCHINI, STEFANO CASINI, FABIO CIVITELLI, MARCELLO TONINELLI e LUCA RAFFAELLI

Mostra “Nel mezzo del cammin di una vignetta. Dante nei fumetti”: da venerdì 11 a domenica 13: i fumetti si cimentano con la Divina Commedia

Aurelio Galleppini, storia di un’avventura: da venerdì 11 a domenica 13. L’omaggio di Casale alla carriera di Galep

Per informazioni: nuvoleintoscana.com