YESTERDAY AND TODAY 

Pilgrims in the 13th century, skirting the marshes of the Val di Chiana, were following the second part of the Via Francigena from Arezzo to Bolsena. When they arrived at Chiusi and looked towards the west they noticed a mountain with a smooth, maternal profile like a .woman's breast and,  on its slopes, a castle with manytowers indicating the presence of a human settlement of some importance. It was Scitonia castle, already in existence in the Carolingian era, with its little houses huddled along the inner wall forming the village of the same name. Given the scarcity of documents available, we can only imagine that life for the village inhabitants, innocent victims of the vicissitudes of international politics, must have been hell. The castle was situated on the border between the Republic of Siena and the Church State and continually represented an object of exchange subject to sudden attacks, pillage and arson. Even during the rare years of peace the days did not pass happily: meagre crops from the poor fields cleared in the woods, taxes, duties, levies, plague and illness, turnips for lunch and turnips for dinner and little more on festive days. The castle feudatory on the other hand, a vassal of the  longobard counts of Orvieto, must have got by quite well if he was able to maintain a substantial group of armed men and participate in disputes between the states to the extent that in 1260 a  contingent from Cetona fought against the Sienese at Montaperti. Again in 1300, year of the first Jubilee in history, that of Boniface VIII, the feudal lord left for Rome with a guard of 30 horsemen to ask for forgiveness for his not insignificant number of peccadillos in exchange for a large sum of money.The castle changed hands every 40 or 50 years after, of course, the customary siege, rapes and pillage of houses as well as women. Cetona castle had been a vassal of Siena for only a few decades when in 1450 a hungry group of men from Cetona formed an armed band and plundered the land around Castel della Pieve (now Città della Pieve). In 1555, although completely faithful to the Republic of Siena, now reduced to the fortress of Montalcino, Cetona was forced to submit and passed into the hands of the Medici. A period of peace and stability ensued and, in a certain sense, prosperity. The statutes allowed a good deal of administrative autonomy (more so than today, given the proportions). In the 1700s (moving now into contemporary history) the people of Cetona elected the Podestà, the doctor and the preacher, all generously paid. There was the customs office (in Finoglio) and many gunsmiths among the various artisan specialised in the construction of harquebuses. There were no less that 14 churches in and outside the walls, a hospital and an hotel for the pilgrims; the village counted 300 households for its roughly 1550 adult inhabitants. A plentiful amount of corn was ground in the village's eleven mills. The town was so prosperous that in 1849 it provided generous financial support to Garibaldi's army in the form of a loan to be returned later. As usually was the case, however, when the request was made in 1870 nothing was given back Towards the end of the century the Comune built the roads to Chiusi and San Casciano and in 1879 provided a 3 mile long acqueduct for drinking water; the only town in the province with 6 springs and a monumental fountain in the town square. It was also the first to receive electricity in 1900 produced with a steam engine. Being a town bordering with the Church State and as such a refuge from political persecution, Cetona was home to an important Masonic Lodge to whom we owe the reading room, later called Circolo Luca Contile, the nursery school and the public library. In later years the hospital Umberto I was constructed and the "Casa Famiglia" established as a home for the elderly and occupationally disabled and which is still operational. So much for history - what about today? In recent times a large number of ltalians and foreigners have got to know Cetona, a delightful little village in the province of Siena, situated at the foot of a mountain bearing the same name and dominating it from the west. Thanks to its geographical location halfway between Florence and Rome on the Autostrada del Sole, its fascinating structure and typically medieval design, the beauty of the surrounding countryside, ressembling a Renaissance landscape painting, Cetona has been chosen as home to well-known personalities from the world of culture and art and as a goal of selective tourists. refined and never invasive. Viewed from a distance and from any angle, the town looks like a cone with houses stacked together around its sides and at the top a large group of cypress and pine trees, crowning the once foreboding l2th-century fortress, now a silent and majestic witness to the innumerable events in which the people of Cetona were primary actors. Around the fortress, the attentive visitor will be able to discern traces of the two higher walls, and just below the Collegiate church (a valuable l3th-century building containing noteworthy paintings including one attributed to Pinturicchio 1454-1513).The visitor will find Piazza Garibaldi something of a surprise, an unexpected space in a town of 3,000 inhabitants, centre of all commercial activity and principal meeting place, a veritable "agorà" of this small community, where churches (S. Michele Arcangelo and SS. Annunziata) and residences (Palazzo Vitelli, l6th-century) stand and where, at the far end, Rivellino tower declares the last vestiges of the outer walls. An initial steep slope leads the visitor to the real "historical centre". Immediately on the right the Palazzo di Giustizia, now the local police station, and further up, on the left, the Palazzo Minutelli, currently the town hall. Then a short way ahead, a quaint and unexpected little square provides a suitable stage to the beautiful Collegiate church, a curtain of rock hanging down from the fortress and the passage which used to link it to the outer walls. Moving on, passing under the characteristic "arco del Brugi", the visitor prepares for the "Costa dell'Arciprete", a curving, initially level path, dropping steeply by "Capperoni" and on towards Piazza Luca Contile (Piazza Paré) and to S. Michele church and finally back to Piazza Garibaldi                                      

                                                                                                                                                                    Giorgo A.Doricchi