An uncle of mine, bought Casa Fantone and other properties immediately after the Second World War. He entrusted the management of the land to my father, who was the only one of the family to have remained in his home village. Of the other nine brothers and sisters, all left the Casentino valley before and during the war, to find a better life in Genoa, Rome and France. When my uncle died, all the local family possessions, about 70 hectares of land and four houses, were inherited by my father. Despite all these assets, farmland management became increasingly difficult as people kept leaving the countryside, and the business turned less profitable.
My parents lived in San Martino village where they had a small farm. They had three sons, of whom I am the youngest. While the eldest brother carried on managing the family property all his life, my older brother and I left our village as young men to work in Genoa in the 1960s.
In 1978, my father decided to divide the property in three parts, one for each of his sons. I chose Casa Fantone farm.
My father never had enough money to maintain in perfect conditions all the properties he had to manage, in any case he brought water and electricity, built a little outside wc (which was later demolished), substituted the flat natural stones which made up the house floor with cement tiles.
However, when I became the owner, the house was in a general state of disrepair and it was evident that several problems had to be fixed. When my father died in 1979, the property stopped to be worked. At the time I was living and working in Genoa and it was impossible for me to take care of the house
Following my retiring from work in 1998, I decided to move back to my village and began anew the activity of restoring the house and managing the property. In 2000 I started renting the property trough an online advertising company. Year by year part of my earnings have been re-invested on the house.