The names of the apartments

Names always tell us something fundamental, they tell us about the place and this means they’re not casually given. Those of the apartments for example represent the original use of that part of the house. Starting with the ground floor, this was where any indoor work took place and where the farm animals were kept. La stalla is the size you see it today, the place where the cattle that worked on the land were kept; the room, with two vaulted ceilings divided by an arch and enlarged by two lateral barrel vaults, was divided in two large wings with two lines of cows and oxen tethered to the mangers. The stable had to be large enough to accommodate the number of animals to be raised, as the house the number of people, both in proportion to the amount of land to cultivate.

Next to, and communicating with, the stable was the Trinciatoio, the feed room where part of the animal fodder was kept and where hay was chopped for the cattle. This area had to be central and with direct access from the outside. The new use for the house meant that a small store room, lo stanzino, had to be united to the feed room to make a bedroom.

On the north side of the house is La Caciaia. A room in the heart of the house was called la caciaia, communicating with the trinciatoio and with the sheep stalls; it was where the forms of cheese were kept to mature. The name caciaia comes from the Latin word cacio, or ‘cheese’ in English. The natural micro-climate inside, and the ventilation of this room made it particularly good for storing various products. In fact salami and wine were also kept here in a mix of inebriating aromas, something that today is unfortunately unrepeatable. The apartment that carries this name together with the room that housed the sheep until a few years ago still have signs of their previous use in an atmosphere of refined rusticity.

The first floor of the Tuscan farmhouse was the habitation of the farmer’s family. La Landuccia could house two large families; there was a large kitchen with an enormous central fireplace and five bedrooms. The kitchen was the heart of the home and it was in fact called La Casa (the house) because all kinds of activities took place there during the long winter’s evenings by the light of the fire. Wool was spun, seeds were cleaned, pork was worked and turned into by-products, mattresses were made and clothes and utensils were mended. When needed the house was also a dance hall, a place to meet all the families from the surrounding areas or shelter for the tramps that once roamed the countryside. Today the apartment called La Casa (the house) is half of the original house while in the other half is Il Granaio (the grain store) apartment.

Again the choice of name for ‘the grain store’ comes from the use of one of the rooms in recent years as a store room for seeds.

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