Anghiari si racconta

I was born in Florence, on the 17th October 1969, I went to school there, and university. Anghiari has always been the other half of my life, because my mum is from Florence and my dad from Anghiari. They met in Florence and lived there after they married. Although we lived in Florence, because of the strong bond dad had with Anghiari, we came here a lot. At the beginning we slept at grandma’s place, then in 1973 dad bought this house where we live now. I was 4, it is the only house that has been constant in my life, because in Florence we moved houses and suburbs.

When we were at school we always came here on weekends and during the holidays. Coming here was a joy for us girls – I have a sister who is a couple of years older than me – we were not made to come, it was fun, lots of cousins our age, we had a group to play together. In fact, we also made friends in Anghiari, but the time spent here affected the relationship we had with Florence. My sister and I felt fiorentine, but even so we couldn’t share any free time with our friends in Florence, especially after we installed a better heating system in Anghiari so we could spend more time here also in winter. Some of the most important love stories I had were with boys from, or around, Anghiari.

After finishing high school, I went Florence University to study an unusual subject, tropical agriculture – at the time it was the only uni to offer this kind of course in the whole Italy. When you finish high school at 18 it feels like coming out of a cage, you feel free. I had ended a relationship with a guy in Anghiari, and I wanted something strong, a change, but I was rather disoriented. I had a passion for nature and animals, which came from my father who watched TV documentaries on fauna and African national parks, and I would have liked to study tropical zoology, but this was only available in Rome. My father reminded me, albeit declaring they would have helped, about the cost of studying away from home. So, I chose agriculture: the first page of the faculty guide was ‘tropical agronomy’, and the first exam listed was ‘irrigation systems for dry lands’ and I saw myself solving children’s problems, villages, and with this dream, I made my choice.

I finished university late, it took years … I haven’t come to terms with this yet. I started quite well, with an average of very high marks, and then at one point I started to slow down, to get lost. Then when I was 32, since I am stubborn, I decided that at least I wanted to write the thesis abroad, so I went to Tanzania for a couple of months. There the passion came back, I was totally fascinated by my African experience, so different from my family history. And what happened at the moment I returned, when I wanted to throw myself again into finishing my exams and collaborating with this NGO who had hosted me? I received a proposal from my uncles to work at Busatti.

I had always worked there, since I was a kid – in summer our grandmother, Francesca, took us to fairs, in Rimini or Sanremo, a chance for us to go to the sea and at the same time learn something about the job and help grandma. In fact, I have never had many holidays, because, although our parents didn’t have bad salaries, it wasn’t so easy to find the financial resources for holidays, and we had a holiday home in Anghiari. I always tried to help when my uncles offered me small jobs, and I could earn something. Then they made me a more formal proposal and I went to work in the Arezzo shop. I accepted because, despite my passion for Africa, I felt the need to lighten my parents of the financial burden of supporting me, and I wanted some economic independence.

It was 2002 and I was 33. I did a lot of commuting by train from Florence; at one point I lived partly Florence and partly in Anghiari, and then, in 2008, my uncles asked me to change from 20 to 32 hours a week, and so I had to cut down even more the number of hours I dedicated to my studies. I felt useful, with some responsibility – they entrusted me with the shop. But there was a conflict inside me: this job had a connection with my family and personal history, but had nothing to do with what I really wanted to be. My goal was to finish uni, and finally I succeeded, and after 10 months, when I was 40, by chance, I had a job proposal from Nardi, a historic company that manufactures agricultural machinery. I work now at the foreign desk.

I met Daniele in Milan, 7 years before we got married, I saw him at an event organized by Barbara, a friend I had met in Tanzania. I didn’t like him at first. Daniele is very funny, odd, we are totally different. We believe and hope that our differences are our strength.  It’s thanks to these that we can find a solution in our conflicts. It is harder when it comes to managing our free time: I am all nature, countryside, outings, while he is a pure intellectual, his pastime is reading. I also like reading, but after 9 hours in the office, I need to move. Another problem is time management: I can’t take care of the house the way I would like, have time for Daniele, and also educate myself, so I am reading less and less. I want to fill some of the gaps I have, but, for example, I prioritize learning languages, and I feel constantly frustrated – I don’t know anything on history, politics, social issues. I am very interested in people, and so, even when, in a conversation, I could acquire information about general knowledge, I tend to ask personal questions: I am interested in what you have to tell me.

At the age of 37, with the end of an important relationship, I entered a deep crisis. I progressively disappeared in an abyss, spending more and more time alone, searching inside myself in a way I had never done before. At that age all your friends have a family, small kids, they have their own lives; I didn’t conform. I found myself alone, fragile, insecure. It lasted 3 years. During this messy period, Tommaso, a Piccolo Fratello del Vangelo I had met in Tanzania recommended an amazing book by Martin Buber [The Way of Man]. Wherever you are in life, when you hear the question ‘Where are you, Adam?’ it speaks to you. The beauty of it is that it is not a catholic book – it has a universal dimension, I would say above religions.

When Daniele and I started to see each other I gave him this book as a present. He was going through a kind of religious quest, and he had asked a nun, a friend of his, for some suggestions on books to start a dialogue with himself, and she suggested precisely this book. Without knowing this, I gave it to him 10 days later, and he was really impressed and, by the way, he liked it a lot. For us it is an important symbol.

In the 3 years following our first encounter, I had been working on myself, and I started to consider fragility, diversity, unconventionality, as enriching, and Daniele is very unconventional…. Then he had his big car accident and after that event, he changed, but now unfortunately he has gone back to be what he was – a person unable to be in the present moment – here and now -but now I know how to manage this. After the accident he slowed down – I remember a long, calm, relaxed beautiful phone call that made me want to see him again. And when I saw him, he was very skinny and walked with a limp, and I felt a lot of tenderness towards him. We started anew together, each with our own story … that day we started to talk and we have talked every day since, and now we are married. It hasn’t been easy, marriage isn’t easy, it is a small everyday miracle.

My bond with Anghiari comes from the bond with my father’s family that has always been prevalent over that with my mother’s family, which is simpler and with fewer relatives. My father’s family is enveloping; there are a lot of them, and they also maintain relationships with distant relatives. For me, Anghiari was a place of fun, boyfriends, friends, free time, being with my cousins. I have a passion for nature, the land, the hills – I used to go as a child to pick mushrooms with my dad, but I also discovered a lot by myself, going around on my bike, small treasures, a chapel with a Madonna, a tomb, a stone commemorating a mother and daughter shot by the Germans near Pietramala castle, a ruin now, in the middle of a wood, towards Arezzo. In the middle of nowhere you find this stone, it is very moving to think that there was life, there were families, stories nobody remembers anymore … there are discoveries to be made, a small pond to swim in, a panoramic viewpoint.

The village is the place where your identity is recognized, people know who you are, which family you belong to, which is OK if you come from a ‘good’ family, not so good if your family had problems – in the village nothing gets lost, your personal story will always be in everybody’s memories. I find this difficult, but perhaps people who live here develop antibodies.

However, Anghiari has a dimension that is beautiful. Some houses are empty in the old part of town, but there are enough inhabitants to have a minimum of a relationship. It is not like it was when dad was a kid and Anghiari vecchio was densely populated, but it is not a fake, it is authentic, – you can still feel and appreciate an authentic life, and feel privileged to live in a place like this. Daniele and I lived in the centre for 5 years. We had a wonderful view: our house was small, but I would step onto the little terrace and wonder how it was possible that I had a house from where I could see all that panorama. When I was planning a bike tour I wanted to do, I went to the window and I could see all the mountains, like a map – so I imagined where I could go. Anghiari vecchio is so sheltered, it is a nest; it is very beautiful also for its layout, the outside city walls and then the inner walls, you feel protected.

For the town, I was always ‘la fiorentina’, they made fun of the way I pronounced certain words; I was a foreigner, but also part of the history here. Now, when I go to Florence, I feel lost, it seems like a metropolis. But I like the anonymity, nobody knows anything about me and because of this one can breathe, it gives you a sense of freedom, one can be a new page every time and something different. In Florence, a city of art, with an international flair, I don’t notice the tourists, they don’t annoy me – I know how to avoid them.

Here in summer, when the Southbank Sinfonia arrives, all these foreigners arrive, it can be a little alienating – there are a lot of them. It’s not like San Gimignano or Pienza… . In my opinion, Anghiari will never become like San Gimignano, because the anghiaresi have a very strong identity, an attachment to their special town. They are very happy to open it up, but they don’t want a distortion of their identity, their history, and the creation of all the infrastructure one has to plan for lots of tourists. The interesting thing about the foreigners who come here is that they seem to have more respect for and interest in local culture than those who go to Florence.

Foreigners were useful in salvaging the abandoned houses in the hills, where people lived until the ’50s,’60s. Then there was industrial development in Val Tiberina and an exodus from the most remote agricultural areas. Those who lived high up in the hills had a bit of agriculture, wood, mushrooms, farming, cheese … but it was hard. Then, with the possibility of working in factories, many left these houses, their kids went to school and didn’t come back once they finished their studies, and the houses were abandoned. It has been a very important work of salvaging; some people, mainly foreigners, had the means to do it and also a certain passion for a life in isolation, even if it is true that if you are here on holiday it is ok to live in a house 10 km away from town with a rough road to get there – if you have to go to work it is different. So, tourists were useful in saving these farmsteads, some did it in a more, others in a bit less, respectful way, but you can’t have everything.

Regarding Busatti, this is an important moment of passage from the old to the new generation, my cousins, who are taking over the running of the company. It seems to me they are quite in harmony and determined. They are facing big challenges, learning the job … so the uncles are still involved, and Auntie Paola, Nanni’s wife, is a fundamental presence in the office, a woman of great capacity, like Auntie Elena in the shop ….

For now, I am happy living in the countryside, but I must admit that I liked living in the old centre very much and, in my old age, I see myself in Anghiari vecchio, near the vicar’s gardens (i giardini del vicario), the most secluded part, where there is a beautiful view and, in the evening a surreal dimension, and everything is a mystery.