Santa Fiora Diffuse hospitality is a project that aims to counter the depopulation of the municipality of Santa Fiora, in Tuscany, more precisely on Mount Amiata. The idea, borrowed from a similar experience in Trentino, sees the establishment of a cluster of holiday homes, making them available to visitors who want to experience life in the village. The project began in the midst of a pandemic, with some brave owners who led the way, and today there are over twenty participating houses. Spending a few days in a village house means not only looking for accommodation to stay in for those few days: it also means entering into the local lifestyle, into the stories of a family, and into a village. Each house tells a story: who lived there before, why it was left empty, and how it came back to life. It means experiencing the pleasure of not being a guest, but rather a villager, for a few days. Some houses hold tales of large families and holidays in the ’70s, and kids with skinned knees. And always in shorts. Others are the result of loving and careful renovations, but each owner opens it up and offers it for use as if laying bare a part of themselves.
But this experience is a tangible attempt to bring more life back to the villages: houses that would have otherwise been left empty and unmaintained become a source of income, albeit small, for the owners, who no longer think of getting rid of them, but rather of investing in them.
And so an entire village can make itself available to “forestieri”, as they used to be known, up here in the mountains: tourists, or travellers.
It would be great if someone fell in love and decided to stay, to change their way of life, because we can affirm without fear of contradiction that our greatest treasure is humanity. Without resorting to cheesy rhetoric, no one can deny that the human quality of a small mountain village is infinitely superior to any quality of life in a large city. A simple demonstration of this is the nights between Christmas and the last days of the year, when the sacred fires of the winter solstice illuminate nights on the mountain that was sacred to the Etruscans. And it is impossible not to be moved by scenes of entire villages bustling, generations hand in hand, who come together to celebrate life and toast to the good fortune of holding each other dear. So the next time you want to experience something real, go to a small mountain village, choose a ‘diffused hospitality’ house, and for a few days you will be free to be…one of us.
Click on the Santa Fiora Diffuse hospitality website to find out more.
