2021-05-30
2021-05-30
Cà de Monti
The village consists of two main buildings and
a tiny church, whose presence could support
that definition. Standing on the edge of a
mountain between Tredozio and Monte Busca,
Past century toponymy refers to it as “I Monti”,
which means “Mounts”. “Cà” is a contraction of
“Casa” - “Home”, and it’s been added in recent
times to the previous toponymy. With more
than 8 bedrooms, 2 kitchens and numerous
indoor and outdoor spaces, while being surrounded
only by the forest, it should be easy to
imagine that I couldn’t ask for more.
Mr. Billi told me that the first stone was put
in place in the 10th century, but there are no
written proofs. Not far away from the road
that’s represented a neuralgic infrastructure for
the salt trade between the Adriatic coast and
Florence, Cà de Monti stands on a rope 700
meters*1 above the sea level, upon a small,
almost untouched valley that faces the Foreste
Casentinesi*2.
The place reveals its inner hospitality by offering
huge indoor and outdoor common spaces,
privileged by its strategic position which meets
forgotten mule tracks and marked trails and wild
areas.
The valley, steeply descending at the foot of
the village, becomes harsh towards the side of
the Foreste Casentinesi. Here, numerous rural
settlements can be found, whose ruins interact
with the surrounding landscape and woods,
standing in a liminal space between a not-sodistant
inhabited stage and the (dis)integration
Cà de Monti
Map of the Tredozio’s area.
Source: Unknown
26 towards natural forces. These settlements,
whose same stones were used in recent times
to renew the structure of Cà de Monti, couldn’t
better represent the never-reversed migratory
flows - departed from rural, internal areas in
Italy, which “contributed to the disappearance
of “cultural landscapes”” starting from the second
half of the XX century*3. A smooth road
sinuously climbs up the small valley, connecting
the two places across 5 kilometres of abandoned
cultivated fields and woods. The green hills
around Tredozio generously leave space along
the road in favour of rugged slopes, constellated
by silent trees and hidden, stone houses.
