“But if we lose them, school is no longer school. It is a hospital, which tends to the healthy and rejects the sick. It becomes just a device to strengthen the existing differences to a point of no return.”
Letter to a teacher, 1967, Barbiana School Pupils and Don Lorenzo Milani
Tuscany is one of the most visited regions of Italy. Every year, more that 6 million visitors swarm its countryside, indulging in its delights and visiting its timeless hilltop towns and historic cities. This land has become firmly entrenched in the people’s perception as the quintessential pastoral idyll; a notion reinforced by books like Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun, which have made readers yearn to abandon their hectic city lives elsewhere to live the Tuscan dream. The cypress-lined country roads and the hilltop farms have engaged the imaginations of artists for hundreds of years, and today, Tuscan landscape paintings are in high demand. Yet, few visitors stop to think about the creators of this pastoral haven - the countless generations of peasant families spanning many centuries. These were the people who dedicated their existences to colonising, shaping and maintaining plains, hills and mountains in order to eke out meagre existences and, in the process, sustain the lavish lifestyles of the aristocratic landowners.
Since the late Middle Ages up to the 1960s, peasant life in Tuscany has been governed by a system called mezzadria. Seen as a great improvement over early medieval serfdom, this system enabled peasant families to be granted a podere (farm) that was part of a fattoria (a landowner’s collection of farms and lands). The farmer and his family kept half the produce from farming and animal husbandry, donating the other half to the Padrone (owner). All family members had to contribute to the Padrone’s needs by providing services such as house cleaning, and, in addition, the farmer was responsible for maintaining the land in good shape. Expenses were also shared equally between tenant farmers and landowner. Thus, the farmers assiduously took care of the land that provided sustenance for their families, and gradually, over 500 years of mezzadria, the Tuscan landscape came to look as we know it today.
The peasant families however, were at the mercy of the Padrone’s whims. The mezzadria pact expired annually, and was tacitly renewed, unless the Padrone decided otherwise. If, for example, a family member died or a daughter was married off, the Padrone could decide not to renew the contract on the grounds of loss of manpower. Often, rich landowners employed ruthless administrators to run their properties and these would wield a lot of power over peasant families. They could easily blackmail peasants into giving them a cut of produce from their share and there was little the poor farmers could do if they wanted retain the farms. Being cast out meant the loss of the farm, hasty selling of beasts at a loss, and the uncertainty of finding another Padrone who was willing to lease one of his poderi.
The mezzadria system was abandoned in many other regions of Italy during the 1800s, but in Tuscany it was reinforced. By the mid 1950s, most peasant families in Tuscany were still under a mezzadria contract rather than working as agricultural labourers or as independent farmers. In the years following the liberation of Italy during World War II, peasants started protesting in order to attain better conditions. However, another phenomenon came to play in the 1950s. Rapid industrialisation of Italian towns meant the creation of numerous jobs, resulting in a migration of peasants towards the cities. The population of rural communities dwindled drastically, and the land gradually fell into disrepair. Landowners changed agricultural practices, preferring to resort to the culture of single crops that could be harvested by mechanical means. Thus, the varied texture of the Tuscan countryside that had been a result of small-scale culture of many different crops began to blur out.
During the fascist rule, landowners supported Mussolini, and this led to unfavourable laws for peasants. Thus, many peasants gave their allegiance to the Communist Party and fought as partisans against the fascists and the German occupiers during the war. Tuscany remains to this day a solid support base of Italy’s left wing parties. The tension between the farmers and landowners remained high throughout the post war years, and it was only in 1964 that a law was passed granting 58% of the produce to the farmers. However, it was already too late to stop the exodus of farmers. At the time, there was a deep class divide in Italian society. Peasants, especially those coming from mountainous areas were considered inferiors by city dwellers. The schooling system replicated the common perception that peasants were inherently ignorant. Children coming from poor families were failed repeatedly in exams until they left school humiliated and illiterate as soon as they reached working age.
Against this dismal backdrop, a priest, Don Lorenzo Milani, ironically coming from an affluent Florentine family, championed the education of the poor peasant families. Transferred as parish priest to the dwindling mountain community of Barbiana in retribution for his radical views on social inequalities, he dedicated his whole life to educating the children of the peasants. He set up an innovative and intensive school that gave children the skills necessary to stand up in life – the gifts of language and critical thinking. He turned learning into a relevant experience for the kids and ensured that they got a chance to learn and shed their timidity. Under his tutorage, a number of pupils teamed up to write a book entitled Letter to a Teacher, denouncing the unfair selective schooling system of Italy. This book sent shock waves throughout the international educational community, and has become a beacon of modern educational studies. It is an aspect of the Tuscan legacy that is perhaps less evident than its famous wines and olive oils!
During the recent decades, Tuscany has experienced a steady return of permanent dwellers to its countryside. The new farmer-entrepreneurs are often unashamedly determined to reroute their lifestyles towards the essentials of pastoral life, equipped with a good education and an optimistic view of their future, just as Don Milani wanted his pupils to be in order to stand a fair chance in an unfair world. Tuscany’s worldwide popularity as a holiday destination has fuelled the revival of its old-time rural traditions. Its poor peasant dishes today feature in culinary TV programmes around the world – an example of creative and sustainable use of available resources. The popular agriturismo establishments enable visitors to immerse in a Tuscan living experience. Thus, the poor farmers’ legacy of hard work and unflinching dedication to the land has today proved to be a solid bulwark against the ravages of a country hit hard by economic crises. Whereas Italian industries are struggling for survival, the traditional products of rural Tuscany are still in very high demand, creating opportunities for export. In addition, the allure of a simple, hearty lifestyle, inspired by the poor peasants of old, ensures a steady inflow of visitors that helps fuel the region’s dynamic economy.
