“When for the first time we turned off the main road into the long, cypress-lined drive which leads to the Abbey of Spineto, we felt it not a discovery but a recognition. The stone wall with its capital, the mixed scent of cypress and woodland, the old stables and the empty houses near the lake, even the three apses of the Romanesque church seemed already familiar and beloved.

Thus I recounted, in the preface to my book published in 1994 about the restoration of the Abbey of Spineto, the beginning of our love-story, a true “coup de foudre” for Spineto. It started as with all great loves, through coincidences, strange propensities, intuition and casual encounters which, magically, culminated in a decisive conclusion.

My companion and I came to Tuscany to search for something as yet undefined – a farm or a villa – where we could pass the latter part of our lives in long periods of tranquillity, absorbing the riches of nature, art and culture abounding in this area.

By an odd coincidence we came upon Spineto, a Vallombrosian Abbey almost 1000 years old, approximately 650 meters above sea-level, lying solitary in a little valley beneath Mount Cetona.

We first saw its austere and massive walls, situated in one of the most gentle landscapes of southern Tuscany, on a clear spring morning with nature in burgeoning beauty. It appeared as a spectre, bound by the sleep of centuries. Only silence reigned, enveloping the great grey walls with their cracked, discoloured plaster; the empty windows seemed eyes without lashes and unlatched doors swung on their hinges. All was lifeless except for the sudden dart of a lizard on the warm walls or the honk of a pheasant which broke the quiet.

This was decidedly not what we were looking for. The Abbey was enormous, far too big for us with its surface of 4.300 square meters. It was folly yet, in only half an hour we hade made the choice which was to change our whole lives.

So initiated three years, the longest, the most difficult but in a way the most fascinating, intense and rewarding we had ever experienced.

We were not cognizant of the Abbey’s history and only became so during long and careful research while it was under restoration. But intuitively we understood and were able to trace its roots.

Many times afterward I’ve remembered that moment and wondered what could have triggered that sudden decision, taken in unison; we were certainly not enchanted by a “pleasant valley far from cities or villages” as put by Torquato Tasso, but instead were catapulted into a situation more resembling a vocation.

Or perhaps a challenge, that to awaken something which was slipping into definitive slumber, risking to fall asleep in the wrong vests, undermining its dignity. The Abbey had undergone a partial and inconsistent restoration, casually executed, which defaced it even more than time’s delapidation.

Perhaps also the wish to reanimate forgotten forces which freed themselves as we wandered through half-empty rooms, in the monks walled garden, through kitchens and ancient cellars, the oil mills, all of which for hundreds of years had heard the same voices, observed the same gestures.

Furthermore we understood that the Abbey of Spineto was an important element of Sarteano, always an integral part of its history: a fortified convent consistently a stronghold of culture, religion and industry.

In acquiring the Abbey we had above all acquired the supreme privilege to waken it with our own hands.

We felt that our arrival and our project for the restoration of the Abbey were welcomed by the local populace. There was a distinct air of anticipation from all sides.

Many individuals encouraged us. Meeting in the square we would be stopped in order to listen to information which might be useful; some people would come up to Spineto from the town and, as we sat in the courtyard, recount tales and legends passed from father to son; one came only to make our acquaintance and say that he had been born, brought up and married there.

Thus the idea grew that the Abbey should be not only be ours but belong, in a certain sense to all, as all should have a hand in restoring it to life.

As the Abbey of Spineto had always been dedicated to work, meditation, study and prayer, we sought a link with this past in order to restore its place in the community. Its destination was to be that of a centre for study, meditation and work such as would make its new life coherent with the old.

With this in mind, we entrusted its restoration to the architects Federico Franci from Florence and Antonio Zambusi from Padua.

So began an absorbing, constructive collaboration which contrasted our frequent instructions and requests with the professional obligations of the architects in order to achieve the careful and loving reclaim we wished for; an indefatigable and scrupulous research focused on a fascinating sense of revival. This work was long, complex and in many cases difficult and questionable. Opinions were often divergent and were followed by lively debates as among those who work together enthusiastically.

It was far from our wish to create a museum but instead a frame which would clearly mirror our objectives as persons with a feeling for today combined with strong traditions of the past.

The philosophy which governed the restoration was simply truth: to meticulously preserve that which pertains to the genuine past, to avoid at all costs that which could be labelled fake or kitsch and to adopt modern technology whenever necessary.

The objective was an active multifunctional centre for a dynamic and up-to-date renewal of spaces always dedicated to meditation, study and industry.

For Spineto, its return to life means offering a contemporary venue for culture and science, a stimulation of inner forces and a widespread contribution to culture outside large cities and the habitual circuits. This concept also has the advantage to offer not only the possibility of greater concentration but also favour man’s reencounter with nature.

Today at Spineto one may congregate, work, learn, teach, discuss, study and even discover oneself.

It’s exciting to hear footsteps and voices once again in the courtyard and to see light spilling from the windows.

I have found that those who come now to Spineto discover the same influences and feelings which we discerned and wished to preserve.

I firmly believe that thought, love, work and long-practised meditation will outlive man in the form of positive energy, as soundwaves absorbed and subsequently released by the stones themselves; an energy we perceive in certain spaces where we concentrate with ease, feel at peace and work with joy.

On some evenings if we linger in the chatter-enlivened courtyard, I think back to silent figures moving with short, rapid steps, brushing close with only a murmured word, their folded arms hidden in wide sleeves.”

MARILISA CUCCIA

From the monthly journal “Controluce” January 1996