A CARTOGRAPHIC PROJECT FOR THE “LILY”, GIGLIO ISLAND

A Cartographic Project for the beautiful and the useful.

Giglio Island is changing. In spite of what happens to the rest of the Earth, the “Lily” is changing for the better. But that we go against the tide is a known fact. While the Planet suffocates in plastic, at Giglio slowly and with the times of the Island – which are those of weighting, which has to do with wisdom, and of slowness, which has to do with the lazy numbness caused by iodine – the Giglio is improving from an ecological and landscape point of view.

It has been happening for about 25 years now, that is, since the first of the heroic winemakers, Francesco Carfagna, gave the “la” to a row of other courageous entrepreneurs and more. In the meantime, the Municipality has improved the waste collection system: we are not perfect… we are talking about improvements. Groups of local ecologists and tourists meet for the days of “Giglio è un fiore” collecting waste; the Nautico group organizes “raids” to clean coves and bays; divers collect dirt from the seabed. The paths and mule tracks are cleaned up: the Pro Loco, the Park Authority, the Foresters take care of them: they are traveled every year by thousands of trekking lovers. The vegetable gardens have sprung up to new life: you can hardly see any more disjointed gates and “ramshackle” ugliness, nor rusty bed nets to act as hedges: the orchards are becoming gardens. And they are multiplying.

After the constant and rapid abandonment of the vegetable gardens, as well as of the oldest productive activities, to make way for tourism in the 70s and 80s, today the vegetable garden has become the new “status symbol” …. Hoping that this “return” to the origins and to our identity can meet the current needs of the tourism market, of those looking for the “real” product, of those looking for emotion and authenticity

There is a gradual and visible change of course. A change that makes you feel even more proud to be originally from this place.

I believe it. I am optimistic. The Giglio will do a great job

I am sure that the Giglio will be able to maintain tourism and make it match the desire to recover what was once considered out of fashion.

This is what needs to be done.

The present with its technologies be repudiated .

We can use these technologies to recover and preserve what we have.

Sì, è questo ciò che dobbiamo fare: conservare.

I am convinced that this work is one of the most precious in the world, if not the most precious. Today we are governed by multinationals (or should I call them “supra-national): food, seeds, drugs and the latest arrivals, communications, those who know our data, who have our information. In a world that wants us to standardize, level, flatten, being able to maintain our skills, our typical characteristics, our knowledge, our individuality, this is the only weapon we also have. This is why I consider this work extremely precious.

In the first days of May, I had a meeting with Laura Barni. Laura is a new Gigliese: she came to live in Giglio, the place where I was born, many years ago. She is the factotum of an association that tends to preserve the beauty, the good and the useful that exists on this island, to ensure that this heritage is re-evaluated, and that it is a source of support.

There are other associations, all aimed at the conservation and sustainable development of the territory. Laura Barni is one of the managers and the most ardent supporter of the “Laudato Si” association which currently has about 70 members.

I asked Laura how many participated in this project and the answer was: about fifty … sixty … – My exclamation was shouted and spontaneous: – CASPITAAA! – There is a board of directors and a president. Again: – CASPITAAAA! – a truly new thing for Giglio, where individualism has always prevailed.

Cristiano is “the hand”: the one who takes care of Sparavieri’s kitchen. Sparavieri is a fantastic place, raised above the Campese bay. The restaurant is multifunctional and you can spend “informal” hours on the terraces in front of unforgettable sunsets, enjoying breakfast, lunch, aperitif and dinner, with local fish and agricultural products transformed by the skilled Cristiano.

It started from the bottom and from the small, Laura – and also the association. From below, from the earth and its products, wild, spontaneous and cultivated. From the small: a micro-production of jams and flavored salts.

Cristiano and Laura are experimenting with other preserves that will be on sale in the very near future. They are original preserves, of those that can only be made here or almost. And that in any case elsewhere they would not have the “frown” the granite, salty and stubborn character that they have having been born here. Because everything here is more intense: colors, aromas and flavors. There is already a micro-production of jams – strictly made with fruits grown on the island or spontaneous fruits, such as strawberry trees. There is also a “flavoring” of the salt with wild herbs, island citrus fruits, spices. Soon we will also find the “Giardiniere” (mixed pickles) born from the wisdom and imagination of Cristiano and Laura and who, as soon as possible, will be on the tables in Sparavieri.

So far I have only mentioned Laura and Cristiano: but there are Francesco, Lisa. Walter, Claudio and… other 65. Each with their own work in different and complementary areas.

Then there is the hostel, to welcome young people and hikers; there is a fishing boat that only serves the Sparavieri restaurant and for ichthy-tourism activities.

But where does Laura Barni want to go, and with her a good slice of “people of good will”?

The project is massive and involves many skills. Laura is an architect, she has marketing knowledge. She fell in love with the island and she knows that these skills exist at Giglio. It is a cartographic project: the mapping of the “capannelli”, the typical buildings that dot the island everywhere.

Built in different and distant eras, they had disparate functions, but were above all linked to agriculture. Yes, because agriculture on the island was fundamental: it made it, to use a modern term, self-sustainable for centuries. The slopes, from the summit to a few meters from the sea, were – and still are – completely terraced and presumably fully cultivated. Making a current map of the agricultural situation, comparing it with the historical agricultural map and also with the map of the capannelli, would be a first step to launch an “agricultural plan for the island”. The island is very different from the mainland and the same principles valid over vast territories cannot apply. There is a need for an agricultural plan that takes into account the territorial characteristics

It is an ambitious project, in which historical and archaeological skills, external architecture and ecology skills, agricultural skills must be brought together. At Giglio there are archaeologists, local historians, architects, agrarians.

Absolutely “do-able” my American friends would say.

Yes it can be done.

Laura would take responsibility for the coordination. In addition to collecting herbs and fruits and making them masterpieces for the palate.

Laura Barni talks about a Cartographic Project.

These are her words:

• …..a territorial agricultural plan on the island that preserves bio-diversity (an inflated term today, but true and real in places like this). Within our territory there are peasants who are custodians of the agricultural and forestry heritage who must be careful that no upheavals occur, that the nature here is not destroyed … as they have always done, preventing fires, indiscriminate collection of each plant: rules that have always existed for centuries without an institutionalized park to impose them. We already have figures “formalized” with the “food communities”. What is difficult is to “share”: it is the ancestral theme of the island – and a bit of all the islands. Returning to our project: from a mapping we should move on to the three-dimensional: the landscape.
• The study of landscape variation: from a “before”, when it seemed that the island was not green at all because it was all cultivated, to the intermediate phase of abandonment, for which the maquis has re-taken possession of the place and the island has become very green. Then again a different passage, today’s one: the beauty of the Mediterranean vegetation is maintained while cultivating the terraces, especially with the vineyard.
• This passage must be studied, analyzed, photographed. It is a wild and agricultural landscape at the same time: for the beauty of the restoration so that all this is in harmony, that there is no prevarication of crops on spontaneous flora. The landscape is part of the natural beauties considered universal heritage…. “. Our association assumes to organize food and wine tours on historical territories. Already with the restoration of the paths by various entities and with the establishment of the Cantine Festival, the Giglio has taken a big step. –

What is my opinion? That the feeling of cohesion and sharing that was lacking in the past is actually developing at Giglio. These associations have made giant steps in this regard. “Autochthonous” Gigliesi and “elective” Gigliesi have been able to create the glue. They saw in depth our “Universal Heritage” and had a vision of the future. I believe it.

Marcella Ansaldo ©