Our little hamlet…

Named after a late Roman settler “Carsius”, the hamlet of Crasciana boasts just over 100 town folks…many more homes so most are vacationers like us or “townies” who come to cool off in the summer months.

Our flat is actually located within the ancient gate entrance to the original piazza and towards the church courtyard. “Via Landia” is of course, stone, narrow and a lovely road, which to an American looks more like a sidewalk. This area of attached homes were built with a long gone Fortress as far back as the 700’s to look out over the Lucca Region and protect it from the mean ole Florentines.

The church is lovely-“Chiesa S Jacopo and S Frediano”-the area outside i’ts front door is the only place I can get cell phone reception so I like to sit in the morning sun, enjoying the huge lavender bushes and checking in on the realities of home. The organ is pretty and they say it still works. The Madonna of the Assumption is center stage over the altar. The ceiling and columns are all much fancier than I expected.

The church has a small school room across the courtyard and in my opinion a BEAUTIFUL bell tower. The tower is so romantic at night and as we drive up the 4 miles from wherever we have gone that day it is like a lighthouse for us. Built in the 17c, the bell rings every half hour and chimes every hour. On Sunday’s the bells toll saying…”Get up and get to church!!” It is about 30 minutes of lovely ringing as you see the local ladies heading up the hill to church.This next trip we vow to halt on the tourism and go to church even though we will have no clue what they are saying.

There is another smaller church outside of the center of town called S. Frediano al Santo. It is not in use anymore but it holds a famous statue of Mary that was fought over (so my neighbor says) by the new church and the old…so every 3 years a festival is held in August where they march the statue to the “new” church for display for 3 weeks. We haven’t made this festivalal yet. In the States we return to school in August so we miss a lot in Tuscany.

When we looked at real estate (just for fun…yeah right)-we had a strange pull to this sweet town. People cutting wood, waving, having coffee in the the little pizza grill. We returned a second time without our kids or agent and shared a coffee and walked the hamlet. It is surprisingly large-it wraps around the mountain and looks down over the valley. There are mushrooms to hunt, trails to hike, chestnuts to gather on this mountain. There is Casabasciana, our neighbor village which sports a nice size iazza, community center and even has a grocery. You feel a billion miles from civilization but really only a 10 minute drive to town….perfect.

The people of course make it special…our sweet Margaret (my guardian angel), Mr Babaldi, Ilonka, Maria Grazia…all so special and kind…

How do you say “hammer” in Italian I asked my kid when we first arrived..I thought I would borrow one for a moment to hang pictures…instead Mr B opened his shed and said…”Welcome…”. Somehow we managed to make this little flat our second home by borrowing every tool I needed! We now know all the village cats, have a favorite parking spot, my favorite direction to hike the hamlet and soon we hope to add a little garden area separate form the flat but a place to grow herbs and sit…

Grab some vino and join us sometime…feeling adventurous and fell like staying off the beaten track? You can check out “Casa Carideo” on Facebook anytime.