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 Following
the award of Viterbo which, in 1219, ended a long dispute between the districts
of Pistoia and Bologna, the border between Pistoia and Bologna was established
where today there is the administrative border between the regions of Tuscany
and Emilia Romagna, as well as the border between the provinces of Pistoia
and Bologna. It is a regular border which does not always follow the Apennine ridge and which has had different applications: at first between the districts of Pistoia and Bologna, then between the Papal State and the Grand Dukedom of Tuscany, and lastly between the regions of Tuscany and Emiglia Romagna following the unity of Italy. It was one of the main connections to the area of Bologna, along with the road of Sambuca, which used to follow the route of the current Porrettana Road SS no. 64. It was represented by an old itinerary of the so-called "Via Lombarda", now reduced to nothing more than a path, which led to the territory of San Marcello Pistoiese, up to Corno alle Scale. Its route is well outlined in the military topography of 1747, published by Andrea Otanelli. From Pistoia and through the town of Le Piastre, Pontepetri and Maresca, the border at "the top of the Alps" was reachable after 13.5 miles (23 km) and was considered "excellent and almost completely flat. Leaving Maresca to go towards the Bologna area, take the straight and go up the Alps. The carters use this road, where there is always firewood and water".  An alternative route, used only by the infantry, ran along the river Reno, from Pontepetri to Pracchia and the baths of Porretta, or "the small path running along the river Orsigno over a small bridge about a quarter mile from the Reno, which led to the area of Bologna", through the pass of Porta Franca or that of Termine. (The Mountain Road Conditions in a document of military topography of the 18th century, second part, "Historical Bulletin of Pistoia", XCV, 1992 A. Ottanelli ). |
 TIZIANO
TERZANI AND THE VALLEY OF ORSIGNA |
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"I first came to Orsigna in 1945, with my father who had been there
in his youth, when it was common to tie would planks to ones shoes. We arrived
on foot, along the mule track. It was not a popular holiday resort and we
were able to find a room for rent easily. For a few years we stayed with
the post-woman called Azeglia, then with a shepherdess, Filide, who had
inherited something from each of her defunct husbands and whose house was,
for this very reason, one of the best in town. I spent every summer minding
the sheep with kids my age, looking for mushrooms and bilberries, watching
sunrise on one of the peaks, which then seemed to me very high a lthough
they were all under 2000 metres. Orsigna was my school of life. It is there
I danced, fell in love, feltfear, and thought of my ambitions - all for
the first time. With my first savings I bought the field where I used to
fly my kite and built a house using stones from the river, in context with
the others in that area except for bigger door and windows. The mentality
of the area served me as a gauge on my travels around the world and when
I needed to give my children - bred in foreign places - their roots and
the memory of a family home, I made them go to Orsigna for two months every
year. [...] I always return there myself and ask myself if, after traveling
so far away among different people, looking for something different and
exotic, looking for a sense at this senseless thing called life, this valley
isn't the most different, most exotic and full of sense and if, after so
many adventures and loves, around Vietnam, China, Japan and now India, Orsigna
will be - if I am lucky - my last and truest love." (T. Terzani, In
Asia, Milan, 1998). On the 24th of July 2004, the "Path of Tiziano" was inaugurated in memory of Terzani, which leads from Casa Cucciani to "the Tree with Eyes, at the top of the valley.
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| THE
MILL OF GIAMBA AND THE ECOMUSEUM OF THE MOUNTAIN OF PISTOIA |
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 The
Mill of Giamba, built in 1820, was fully functioning until 1947. In 2000
the Cooperative of Val d'Orsigna restores the building and repaired the
structure of the mill, which consists of two horizontal wheels (millstones).
This represented the reintroduction of the complete chestnut processing:
from picking to drying and grinding them in the watermill. Two bridges have
been built next to the mill, following designs by Leonardo. The "metato"
(a stone building for the drying process of chestnuts) and the mill of Orsigna
are on the "Itinerario della vita quotidiana" (the Daily Life
Route) of the Eco-museum of the Mountain of Pistoia. There is also an educational
route, "Via del Carbone", where it is possible to visit a coal
man's hut (rapazzola) and a coal cellar.Info: Cultural Office of Pistoia, phone 0573 97461 during office hours or email ecomuseo@provincia.pistoia.it . |
| THE
WOODS AND THE COALMEN |
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 Like
carpentry, coal selling and coal man were the most common jobs of the area
for a long time. It requires particular skills. To quote Claudio Rosati
"the operations (he) must carry out are numerous and guided by intuition.
Touch, smell and sight become their interactive relationship with wood and
fire and the trade resumes in the expression, governing the coal burner."
(The trades of the woodland. Documenting material, Pistoia 1984).This skill is at risk today, following the change in the current demographic and economic situation, of being lost forever and which only the good will of non-profit associations and institutions is trying to save, recuperate and hand down for its educational and cultural, as well as economic, relevance |
| THE
"PASTURE" OF ORSIGNA |
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 The
importance of the woods in medieval economy is shown by the particular interest
with which the city of Pistoia imposed the presence of guards to control
"silvam que vocatur Ursinia", which was to be neither cut, nor,
burned, nor in any way destroyed. This evidence is found in the Constitutum
consulum dating back to the12th century, the oldest statute of which considerable
parts were conserved.Initially part Count Guidi's property; Orsigna became part of the commune of Cireglio in 1162 and then part of the more powerful town district. The "Pasture of Orsigna in the commune of Pracchia" is outlined in the maps drawn by the architect Giuliano Gatteschi on the spot on 27th March 1773. The Pasture consists of thickets of beech and turkey oak, chestnut trees and particular buildings (…) and its boundaries are the State of Bologna to the north, the gorge of the lake to the west, the river Orsigna to the south and the gorge of Gnocco to the left". The knolls of Cocomero, of Guelfa, of Porta Franca, the houses of Piero Paccagnini and of Niccola Fagnoni are also marked on the layout. |
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| THE
BORDER CONTROL OF PRACCHIA |
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In ancient
times, the road leading from Bologna to the pass of Porta Franca and down
into the Orsigna valley on to Pistoia was one of the most popular trans-Apennine
routes. Therefore, the role of this area was very important and, as written
by Bortolotti, "the crest on which we travel freely, was patrolled
by the Papal guards and of those of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Traces
of this period can be found today in the names Gabelletta, termine, Porta
Franca Dogana, Doganaccia, etc." (G. Bortolotti, Guide to lake Scaffaiolo
and the ridge from Oppio to Abetone, Bologna 1950).
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