TUSCANYmeanders

Our village Guzzano is a tiny little village perched on a hill around Bagni di Lucca. It has medieval origins, and more specifically it dates back at least to year 777 as it is reported in the "Memorie e documenti per servire all'istoria del Ducato di Lucca", Lucca, 1818, Francesco Bertini, tipografo ducale (a dissertation on the ecclesiastic history of the dukedome of Lucca), of which you can see an abstract on the right. In short: "Bishop Peredeo buys for his Cathedral of San Martino the goods ("..house, yard, garden, grounds, vineyards, woods, meadows, pastures, chestnut groves, cultivated and uncultivated grounds"..) that Felicissimo son of Lopicino owns in Cotiano or Coziano (=Guzzano) near Controne for the price of 20 soldi (coins) in year 777".

Who knows, maybe Felicissimo is our ancestor and the yard, which is mentioned in the document is our small "piazza" (la Spilla, one of our holiday houses overlooks the piazza). His name is promising: Felicissimo=very happy man!

At the beginning of the XX century a part of our family and a lot of the village's inhabitants sought their fortune abroad, especially in the United States. Some grandchildren still live outside Italy but come back here for holidays once in a while. English tourists bought houses in our village, following up a long tradition which dates back to the XIX century, when English poets or artists like the Brownings were literally enraptured with our surroundings.

We were raised in Florence, Italy but spent a lot of unforgettable summer days here with our nonni (grand-parents) and that's why we decided to restore our family houses and give the village the rebirth it deserved.