From working in an enclosed and stuffy environment to a wider-ranging living in the Garfagnana mountains
Domenico lives and works running his small one-man farm to experiment and recover ancient traditions of farming : vine-growing, olive-growing, beekeeping.
Two rural buildings situated on a slight slope, plunged into the light green robinia wood are reserved for the guests and overlooking the panorama of the jagged rocky crests of The Apuan Alps with its massif called “Omo Morto” (Dead Man) which conjures up an “alpine” profile.
Michelangelo came here to “quarry marble” and many others made use of these mountains of marble which are the most important source of this stone in the world; their name, used for the first time by Boccaccio, derives from the Apuans, a people of Ligurian extraction.
The Fienile (The Hayloft) and The Metato (a stone shed built in a wood) retain their original stone and brick structure likewise in the garden, the outdoor stairs, the path, the water-supply tank and the pavements; the swimming-pool (9 × 3,5), covered with a dark PVC and wedged between a stone, wooden and brick structure becomes beautifully part of the surrounding environment.
The Fienile originally was a stable on the ground floor and a forage-shed on the first floor .
The Metato was used for the chest-nut exsiccation with the slow-acting heat of the embers