Our Story

Grandfather Edward. In 1920 great-grandfather Edward returned by steamboat from Australia.

After years of hard work in the parish's fields and hard-earned savings made as a laborer on the "farms" of Perth, he finally managed to return to Tuscany and buy a farm of his own: it was the Percaldino farm, located in the upper Garfagnana near the Tea Pass, along the route that the Toschi family used to walk to reach Lucca.

Those were other times: in the barn a few cows provided milk for family consumption and cheese. Wheat, corn, beans and potatoes were grown. Chestnuts were gathered to raise pigs. The forests were a valuable resource for firewood, building material, and here and there in the "forest" one could see the smoke of the charcoal burners intent on coal production rising. There were no means to help great-grandfather in the hard work of his land: the only help was "Giannasi the mule" and a couple of cows tamed at the yoke.

Despite his few resources Edward proved to be a man of extraordinary industriousness, stubbornness and ingenuity. Year after year he manages to make even impervious or poorly lush fields and soils productive. he "Scassa i grottoni" or picks up and removes the boulders that sprout in the middle of his fields, builds ditches to drain rainwater, relies on diversified agriculture to have harvests at more times of the year, and builds the "manni," the straw greenhouses that allow him to have vegetables even in winter. It is in this atmosphere of strong dedication to work that he raises his nine children.

Late in life, during breaks from working the fields when he was not reading his books in English or playing the violin he had self-taught in the Australian woods, he would often tell:

"I worked hard but my land always rewarded me. My family and I never went hungry, not even in sad times like during the Great War, which tore our valleys apart. Those who knocked on my door always found something to eat."

This twentieth-century figure of a progenitor still inspires the principles of our family today: dedication to work, stubbornness, passion for the land and its fruits, curiosity, ingenuity, and hospitality.

In the 1950s, the very first tractors arrived in Garfagnana, and Edoardo's sons, Andrea and Valto, were the first to understand the potential of the new means and to purchase them: mechanical plow, harrow, tiller, machine for threshing wheat, and baler for harvesting forage.

These innovative means were not available to most farmers, so the two brothers realized they could supplement the fruits of the farm by working other people's fields on call: the wheat campaigns began!

Every July the caravan formed by the tractor, threshing machine, baler and trailer set out from Gallicano and went up the entire Garfagnana, harvesting wheat at the various farms to arrive in August at Percaldino and conclude the threshing season. Grandfather Andrea, Uncle Valto, Rodolfo, and Felice made up the team of expert tractor drivers capable of driving the vehicles up the rugged Garfagnana slopes where others dared not go.

They bought one of the first machines for cleaning chestnuts, and in the fall they made the rounds of the "metati" (chestnut dryers, typical of the valley).

From the 1960s Andrea and his wife Oliva also opened a dairy in Percaldino where milk processing was done according to ancient and natural rules: milk from the valley, rennet, and salt were the only ingredients for a genuine product appreciated both in Garfagnana and Lunigiana as far as La Spezia. Between the 1970s and 1980s the dairy was a fixed stop for many vacationers who at the end of their vacation stocked up on butter, ricotta, and cheese to take home.

Within this tradition, after three generations, our work cannot end: that is why I, who bear the same name as Great-grandfather Edward, decided to inherit the experience and passion of all those who created this paradise. The love for the land and its fruits has been with me since I can remember.

On my farm I have resumed the cultivation of spelt, different types of wheat (also recovering ancient varieties such as Senatore Cappelli wheat), potatoes, legumes. I cultivate the vegetable garden to offer fresh vegetables to guests. I raise garronese and limousine breed calves to have genuine meat.

We started chestnut harvesting by reactivating our Metato for drying and production of the famous Garfagana chestnut flour. All this following the ancient traditions, under the constant guidance of Uncle Valto, class of 1933, and Aunt Laura, class of 1935. Since 2017, I have decided to share the harmony of our land with guests who want to appreciate its beauty, thus L'Agriturismo Cilla was born.