History
The existence of Fattoria Resta is recorded as far back as 1236, the date appearing on a document testifying to a sworn statement made in the chapel. The existing villa (across the courtyard from us) was built in the sixteenth century, as demonstrated by the inscription under the eaves which you can read when the light is right: "E IO BIAGIO CICIERANI FATTORE E IO M° MARTINO DEL NERO FECE ANNO 1575" (I, Biagio Cicierani, the farmer and I, Master Martino del Nero, built in the year 1575). Another inscription in the cellar at the far end of the villa, dated 1573, praises the excellent local wine.
The main villa across the courtyard from our house is built in the mannerist style, with a sequence of full arches in what was originally an open loggia on the first floor contrasting with lowered arches on the ground floor, adding dynamism to the construction.To set the building into its historical context, just look out at Montalcino rising to the south and think of the heroic resistance of the republican Sienese who retreated there when their city fell to the Florentines, and lived under siege for four years in the fortress, from 1555 to 1559. The village of Buonconvento was used as a base by the besieging army.
The famine and destruction of that war was just fading from memory when the villa at Resta was built, in a new age of prosperity under the rule of victor Cosimo de'Medici.Fattoria Resta was the historical centre for the whole of the ridge on which it is built and the ridge behind. The landowners lived in the villa and rented out all the other houses and farms to mezzadri or sharecroppers, who had to give half of their produce to the landowners as rent. In addition, they brought their grapes to the Fattoria to be made into wine, and their olives to be made into oil, then took half home with them and left half to the owners of the Fattoria.
The landowners would then have sold the surplus to merchants in Siena, only 25 km away on the Via Franchigena or Via Cassia, an old Roman road which had become a major pilgrimage route for travellers from northern Italy, Switzerland, and Germany heading to Rome.
The village of Buonconvento grew in the middle ages at a spot on this pilgrimage route where travellers originally had to ford the river; they often had to stop and wait for the river level to drop, and in the early 12th century merchants began to set up on the spot to cater to their needs. When a bridge was built across the Ombrone River in 1359-1360, this provided an additional boost to the growth of the town, which was walled by the Sienese in 1366 because of its importance as an outpost for their defence.
Kings and emperors from Charlemagne on travelled this route to Rome, to pay homage at the tomb of St. Peter or be crowned by the Pope. Buonconvento is famous for a single episode in its history: Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg, in whom Dante had vainly placed his hopes for a better future, died here in 1313. Some say he had eaten a poisoned communion wafer.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a new type of traveller began to appear on the road passing through Buonconvento: the wealthy English or northern European intellectual on the "grand tour" which almost always concluded in Italy, in search of natural and artistic beauty and colourful local customs. The grand tour took travellers to Florence, Siena, and thence to Rome, making it inevitable that they should pass through Buonconvento. Montaigne dined and spent the night here in 1580, and was amazed by the amount of traffic on the road to Rome. Scottish writer Tobias Smollet had a little misadventure here in 1765, which you may read about on page 241 of the battered volume of his Travels through France and Italy on the bookshelf. Ten years later the Marquis De Sade was equally dissatisfied with his overnight stay in Buonconvento, complaining of a "detestable" inn but not specifying whether the adjective referred to the food or the accommodations. Things had improved by the time Charles Dickens got here, and was able to dine on minestrone, chicken, wild game and cheese.
By this time Fattoria Resta had become the property of the Conservatorio del Refugio, a charitable institution in Siena. Documentation in the archives of Siena demonstrates that this institution owned the farm at least from 1787 - 1923. Founded in 1580 to house poor orphan girls, the institution later combined with Ospedale di Monna Agnese, founded in 1260 as a hospital for unwed and widowed mothers, and widened its scope to include education of girls from both poor and noble families. Local landowners contributed donations and legacies to the institution until it became quite wealthy. Charitable institutions of this type owned farms such as Fattoria Resta in the countryside around Siena which provided them with agricultural products to feed the poor whom they were assisting and with a regular source of income from the sale of surpluses.
You can see the crest of Monna Agnese, an M combined with a cross, on the side of the villa facing onto the street, in combination with the Saracen and snake appearing in the crest of the Saracini, an important Sienese family.
The crest on the side of our house facing the courtyard is of the Tolomei family; you can see others like it in Piazza Tolomei in Siena. It is likely that members of these families were at the helm of the institution which owned the farm.
The existence of the chapel at Fattoria Resta is recorded as far back as 1236, when, on the 24th of May, one Bernardo, representative of the mayor of Siena, swore an oath before witnesses in the church of San Giovanni at Resta. The chapel used to have a Madonna and Child with St. Joseph and Two Angels by the prolific 15th century Sienese painter Sano di Pietro over the altar, as demonstrated by a catalogue dated 1862 compiled by one Francesco Brogi. In 1916 the painting was taken to the church of San Raimondo al Refugio, the church of the Conservatorio del Refugio, the charitable institution based in Siena that owned Fattoria Resta at the time. It was stolen from there in 1952 and disappeared from view until 2007, when it resurfaced up for auction at Sotheby's in Milan. Someone recognised the painting in the auction catalogue and notified the police, who began the lengthy procedure of seizing the painting and restoring it to its rightful owner. In August 2012 the Madonna di Resta was returned to the church of San Raimondo al Refugio, just inside Porta Romana in Siena, where you may go to see her. A photographic reproduction of it like the one shown here on the right is currently on the altar at Resta where Sano di Pietro's original was once displayed. The photograph on the left was taken by Lombardi, a photographer in Siena, at some time between 1906 and 1928, and shows how the worshippers in the chapel at Fattoria Resta had decorated the Madonna and Child with crowns and strings pearls in sign of their devotion.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, agriculture in Tuscany was renewed by better organisation and introduction of mezzadria, the share-cropping system. At this time the Fattoria Resta buildings, including our home, were renovated and expanded; the chapel now standing is neoclassical in style and most likely was renovated in the early nineteenth century. Our home bears the date 1831 over the front door, but was certainly here before that, as demonstrated by an 1819 map of the local area which we found in the Siena land registry office. 1831 is the date of major renovation work, possibly the conversion of a building which was originally an olive press or other farm building into a home for the agent who oversaw the running of the farm.
The ground floor would originally have housed cattle. One room of the house served as a country schoolhouse between the end of the second world war and 1965, when country schools were closed and schooling was concentrated in the towns following the advent of cars and buses. Strangers occasionally drive up the road and stop here to look at the place where they went to school and reminisce.
[updated on the 18th of August 2013]