Tuscany agriturismo self-catering apartments, Italy
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
We all have in mind those Tuscany hillswith a few cypresses along a dirt road. Unfortunately for farmers such character-istics mean more work and less income. The local communities as well as the EC try to sustain and help diversifying the resources of farmers in those places to maintain the rural community and with it the countryside
Agriturism is one of the side income meant only for farmers. That doesn’t mean all agriturism structures are sustainable, responsible & ecological, far from it, and Italy is not the kingdom of ecology.
Many agriturim have just the name of it with little land, this due to the lack of control of the state. For our part, we are growing bamboo for shoots, canes and reproduction as well as bonsais from seeds adapted to our climate zone specially Japanese and local trees.
Doing so since 1990 means that our bamboos are already big and mature. First because we took the tallest species growing in Europe and second because it needs about 10 years to have such a mature bamboo plant. Mature doesn’t mean that the bamboo gets thicker and longer each year. It means that the new bamboo shoots reach in height and thickness their top size in a year. Think, when you eat bamboo shoots you eat a whole bamboo cane. No wonder such delicacies are expensive ! We do other things, such as grow organic fruit and vegetables, grow cherry trees for wood and keep some horses and poultry on the premises.
In our own small world we have tried to act as unobtrusively as possible, taking into consideration both ecology and efficiency as far as our purse could indulge. The restructuring of the lodge was made by: insulating floors, walls, roofs and windows . You will say it’s no big deal and you are right for where you come from , but here it’s already a start. To heat all of the agriturismo, we chose a very efficient central heater for wood. Why so ? Well, the reasons are obvious as we’ve got lots of forests of chestnut wood that are unkempt . Just collecting the dry trunks and cutting the ill ones put us through winter and we have already collected all the necessary logs for the next one. There is still more to come as some neighbours are offering us to go and tidy up their own woods. Pity we couldn't do it before as chestnut wood makes sparks when burning. Some people have started considering the matter with interest and already two of them have a central wood heater too.
Now we are trying to find a way to produce power as well with that central heater using a Stirling engine. If we succeed and can afford it, the thing will surely ring a bell in many farms. To produce ethanol or bio-diesel would be better but the State is short-sighted with fat money.
Community
Friends, neighbours, tourists
We settled in Italy a long time ago but we are not Italians. As foreigners and ex-travellers ourselves it is easy to know what our guests are interested in and help them to find what they are really looking for. Italians are not keen on languages so it's always a relief for our guests to find out we are fluent in four languages.
The Casentino stands in between Firenze and Arezzo. It's a rural area mostly busy with agriculture. As such mentalities are rather closed and new ideas are are difficult to introduce. Nevertheless, people are curious and they are quick to pick new ideas for example using central heaters working with logs of wood instead of gas or fuel.
We are trying as well to promote the Casentino valley with the “Casentino endurance day” a long distance horse race (150-250 km) which passes through our land. As a “good” photographer I do contribute indirectly to advertise the region. I do believe that providing beautiful pictures of this region are of much help to develop and preserve this beautiful patch of Tuscany.
We have plenty of new ideas too but the funds are scarce. We would love to provide our guests and ourselves with an electric car, power beeing provided by the roof of the garage.
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