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LETTER FROM TUSCANY Montalcino - Sant'Antimo's Walk
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SOMETIMES WE CAN be very lucky with our walks, good weather, not too hot and not too cold and unplanned things. This year for example the countryside has had an abundance of wild flowers, never seen before. All sorts of them: Violets, Cyclamens, Gladiolis and even delicate Orchids. There are many many more wild flowers that I don't know yet so I have proposed myself to get some good books on the subject and learn a little bit more about the wild flora of our area. Of course as the Spring progresses towards Summer it gets even richer, a variety of fruits begin to appear and this year we have lots of them, wild strawberries, cherries and beautiful loquats. Every season has its fruits and every walk has its "bush tucker" and depending on the season we have a chance of tasting juicy blackberries, plums, figs, pears, apples and of course wine grapes. There are times though, when something really special happens, things that turn out so timely and wonderfully well that neither Barbara nor I could have organised it any better. This Spring during one of our "normal" walks: Montalcino - Sant'Antimo, I decided once again to visit the site where Etruscan Arcaic diggings, just a few hundreds yards from our path, have been going on for several years. The place marked by yellow metal posters with the name of the Archeological Department of the Province of Siena and the University of Florence is situated at about one third of the walk just a while before the highland section and the steep descent leading to the Abbey of Sant'Antimo. That morning as we approached I noticed some people scattered around the digging area. "Tourists" I thought, remembering previous occasions in which we met other groups of tourists or school children visiting the site but this time it wasn't so. As we were observing some young people digging and carefully sifting and placing the soil in buckets a gentleman of about 55 approached us. I explained we were a mixture of Aussie and Kiwi trekkers on our way to Sant'Antimo. And so it came out that the gentleman was a keen trekker, he had been trekking also in New Zealand and years ago while he was trekking in the Montalcino area he noticed on his map the name "Poggio Civitella". The name intrigued him. Now "Poggio" means little hill and Civitella from Civitas means city or town. The area in those days was totally overgrown by trees and bushes, nevertheless during a quick exploration Signor Luigi Donati discovered the traces of three different sections of outer stone walls some four meters thick. Somehow Signor Donati got the backing of Florence University and the diggings, with stops and starts, have been going on ever since. |
To the delight of our guests he took us for a little exploratory tour of the area, he showed us the circular walls surrounding the site, an iron melting and processing shop, a stone water storage, a couple of tombs, "Poor tombs" he said, "There was no gold or refined pottery but mind you the tombs had been robbed and the first tomb robbers where the Romans! Two bronze votive statuettes, found mysteriously in the area of Montalcino are presently conserved at the Rijksmuseum of Leiden in Holland. As a gift Signor Luigi Donati presented us with an Archeological publication with an article and photos of the site written by himself and he gave us an appointment next December in Montalcino, date to be set, during which he will speak at a public meeting presenting a report of the diggings. Of course, we will be there! Can't tell you how happy our guests were, and how pleased I was, after years of visiting the site I couldn't even have imagined that one day I would have met the man that discovered and initiated the diggings of this important Etruscan arcaic settlement. We continued our walk with much pleasure and when from the steep descent we saw down the valley the solid tower of Sant'Antimo I was relieved, we would get there just in time to visit the Abbey and to listen to the monks singing Gregorian chants. But my stomach was rumbling, he was more interested to the plate of salami, prosciutto, finocchiata and a glass of the local red that would come afterwards in Sant'Antonio dell' Abate! I guess the stomach wants his share too! Ugo Mariotti |
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