CULTURAL HIKES

The land that includes LE FONTI farmhouse was structured in the past by a system of residential and rural settlements of ancient origin. In the Middle Ages, with the development of the feudal system, based on forms of subsistence economy, settlements on medium and high hills, used for grazing and for forest products, were privileged, while lower land was cultivated with grapeyards, olives and forage crops. At this time, the presence of the Counts Guidi was predominant. They owned several castles in this area, which have now disappeared. During the thirteenth century (Late Middle Ages) the population began to abandon the walled villages, to move to the new villages with an “open” structure, among which S. Brigida and the town that developed near the Pieve di Lubaco, witnessed by the current nucleus of Villa Masseto (located about 300mt from Le Fonti) which has retained some of its late medieval features. This ancient building, for many centuries, has belonged to a famous and powerful Florentine family, the Guadagni, almost certainly natives from the valley. Established bankers, they had important political and military posts in Florence until about the middle of the fifteenth century, when Cosimo de’ Medici, the Elder, forced them into exile in France. Returning to Florence at the beginning of the seventeenth century, after having accumulated considerable financial and patrimonial resources during their stay in France, at the court of four kings of France (Henry II, Charles IX, Henry III and Henry IV), they acquired numerous possessions in Florence and in the area surrounding Le Fonti farmhouse.