Category Archives: Coreglia Antelminelli

Responsible Local Supermarkets

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Supermarkets are often accused of being irresponsible for several reasons, some of which are:

  1. They help to close down local shops (just look at BDL’s high street)
  2. They spread pollution through clients’ cars driving there
  3. They encourage food wastage by bulk buying and special offers.
  4. They throw away a lot of the overdue date items instead of distributing them to people on low incomes.
  5. Some of them underpay and overwork their staff.
  6. They are too often built on green field rather than brown-field sites.

It makes, therefore, a pleasant change when some supermarkets show a bit of social community consciousness. I won’t advertise this particular supermarket except to say that it’s near Ghivizzano.

There’s clearly-marked encouragement to buy food which is near its sell-by date at a discount.

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There are collection points for voluntary giving of food to stray, and abandoned pets and animals (with a free token gift if one contributes).

There are also collection points for giving of food to needy families, so rapidly and shamefully increasing in Italy (not to mention what is happening in the UK and what will become worse after March 29th this year).

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There are also posters making people aware that abuse towards women (in a country where there’s at least one woman killed by a man every three days) doesn’t have to be visibly seen but can also be psychological and kept out of sight.

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I wish more supermarkets had a social conscience like this…

Another way that supermarkets can be more socially aware is with regard to the payments they make to their sources. Recently, because of the low price they obtained for their milk, Sardinian dairy farmers protested by throwing away large quantities of the stuff. ‘It’s just not worth us selling milk at the prices we get for it.’

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An extreme protest indeed…at least the farmers could have donated the milk to needy families. Meanwhile, a well-known UK supermarket chain has issued these labels on its milk products. I thank Sandra Pettitt for bringing this to my attention and for sending me these photographs.

Walk to Sant’Ansano Hermitage

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A delightful walk may be made from the car park at the village of Lucignana in the municipality of Coreglia Antelminelli to the Romitorio of Sant’Ansano.

Romitorio means hermitage and Sant’Ansano was a member of a well-to-do Roman family. Born in 284 AD Sant’Ansano preached the gospel in Siena as a result of which he was arrested and ordered to be killed by having boiling pitch poured over him. However, Sant’Ansano survived this and was instead beheaded in 303. Sant’Ansano’s body eventually found burial in Siena cathedral and he remains that city’s first patron Saint.

The first part of the walk takes one down through a forest of holm oak to a purling stream.

Crossing this stream the paths winds upwards and emerges from the forest to reveal a view of the hermitage.

Situated on Lecciaia hill the hermitage’s origins are not known. However,  it already existed in 1000.  The church was transformed into an oratory in the twelfth century and two centuries later the parsonage was used as a hermitage.

In the fourteenth century the arcaded porch was erected in front of the façade.

Abandoned for many years the church has recently been well restored by the people of Lucignana.

The walk is not at all strenuous, passes through delightfully sylvan countryside and the hermitage porch is a pleasant venue to enjoy a sandwich lunch. (The hermitage church always seems closed.)

Incidentally, Sant’Ansano is also the patron saint of Ponte a Moriano on the way to Lucca. The two statues on the town’s bridge represent the Virgin and Sant’Ansano who is celebrated by a festival there in November. (See my description of the festival at https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2015/12/03/ponte-a-morianos-santansano-festival/