The history of Pianconvento and the reasons for which the holiday farm was realized. Pianconvento has been family property for two generations. My grandfather Torquato Nanni started the investment in 1929. He built the house to make it easier for the farmers, who lived at Piani di Sotto, to reach the fields. At the time there was a bare hill made of limestone and mud layers with few lots of cultivable land. My grandfather reforested the areas, which were very bare and exposed to the wind, thus covering the top of the hill with pine trees. In 1950 my father, Torquato Nanni Junior, continued the reforestation work. During the years, many farming families have lived here and made the soil fertile. This place, where we have always spent a lot of time, has created in my sister and myself close ties with nature, seasons, flowers, fruit and the sense of friendship among these people. This is where we picked flowers in spring, first my sister Rosella, after her me and my friends, then my daughter Simona and now my granddaughter Giulia. The grape harvest has always been a festival, a moment to share with friends and neighbours in the open air, chatting among the rows of vines, at times receiving precious recipes for delicious food. Once the last family of farmers had left the farm, this house became my shelter, where I have regained my deepest roots. 28 years have gone by since I started to make this place mine, where I have lived the richest part of my experiences. Working in Bologna, where I felt the hectic economic and social process as something very far from life and its values, coming back to Pianconvento on Saturday has always been a relief for my body and my soul. This place has given me so much with its wild nature and animals!! To pick firewood and cones in the summer to get warm in the winter ……. to prepare the vegetable garden in spring, plant the seeds and look after them as they grow, little water but lot of love ….. so tasty those small tomatoes, growing with difficulties, quite few but unique in taste, the carrots, the baby marrow flowers, the baby marrows, the potatoes and the peas, those left to us by the deer after their invasions …… to pick field herbs for cooking – the famous “stridoli”, excellent for antique recipes, from “tortelli” to soups and omelettes, very good for salt cakes as well ….. to wake up in the morning not managing to open doors and window shutters for the snow that fell during the night ….. to walk on that marvellous white carpet feeling unique, unique like the footprints we leave behind …….. to spend joyful moments with friends, to cook simple and good food for them and to learn from expert friends our simple and genuine traditional dishes. For many years, Pianconvento has been a “playful existential laboratory” where several persons have found themselves thanks to friendship, solidarity and nature. After environmental upheavals and earthquakes, the farm had become unfit for use. Since I did not want to lose my nest, I started a restoration project without changing the architectural features, using old materials, maintaining the old stonewalls according to the rules of ecological design to create a healthy environment. The works lasted three years, during which we also looked for the right materials to bring back the spirit of the house thanks also to old photographs from the files of my father Torquato Nanni Junior. We ourselves have treated the roof wood manually with natural oils to avoid the utilization of chemical substances. On the ground floor, we have used fired bricks from our region, handmade and treated with natural materials. The heating is done with firewood; thanks to special installations, we also heat the radiators using firewood. In the Middle Ages Pianconvento was a monastery for nuns, who helped the local people to survive in spite of the misery they lived in.
