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Oral history recording with Neda Renzi. Recorded as part of the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Part 1 of 7 (AV 11462 - 11468)

00.37 Neda talks about her grandparents- their names and provenance, they were both from the outskirts of Turin. Her grandfather worked as a fattore who managed the farmers in the area. She explains how the farmers in the area worked for a larger farm or fattoria which was owned by a nobleman. Her grandfather was the fattore and her grandmother was fattoressa; the housekeeper. Her grandparents married at quite an old age around forty and had to leave their jobs in order to get married. Many farmers worked for the fattoria, but each farm was independent, they were called poderi in Tuscany. The poderi would have around ten or twelve hectares of land and each fattoria would have around ten, fifteen or sometimes twenty farmers. In Tuscany the farming system was mezzadria, the farmer did the work and the owner provided all the tools, the manure, the seeds and the animals. They then divided the harvest in half. After the Second World War the system changed and 60 percent was given to the farmer, 40 percent to the landowner.

10.07 Neda describes her grandfather and grandmother. The family would gather in the kitchen because during the winter the stove made the room very warm. They would also have ceramic containers with a handle that would be filled with coals and act as heaters that stayed warm all day. Neda’s grandmother always had one of these with her and would heat up apples on it, she recalls the smell. Neda shared a room with her grandmother. When her father married her grandparents and aunt lived in the same house as her parents; she felt united and protected having the whole family together, it was an open house with guests coming and going. Neda’s father was Leonetto and her mother Adalgisa, maiden name Bausi. When her grandmother died her mother took over the housekeeping. They lived in a large house, with around fifteen rooms. There was a basement where the barrels were kept for wine making. The house was very large and cold and Neda describes it in more detail. After some time in Castelfranco di Sopra near Arezzo they went to live in Florence.

19.29 The town was built in the 1300s. It has been noted as one of the prettiest villages in Tuscany: a medieval walled town with a tower. Everyone worked as farmers, there was no industry, whereas now the village has extended and there are factories on the outskirts. There were some small shops but farming was the main industry. Farmers grew grapes, olives, grain, vegetables and potatoes. Animals were kept only to help with work. Neda’s family didn’t work the land, but rented out land to ten farmers whose farms made up the fattoria. They gave them farm products and harvest in return. Products were also sold in and around the village. Neda had four younger sisters and a younger brother who died at six months. She says that they lived the life of princesses as her father was the podestà, the mayor of the village. He was very respected and they lived a very good life until the war started. It was a very outdoors life, she talks of various games they would play.

30.00 In the town there were some craftsmen- the shoemaker, ironmonger, carpenter. She remembers characters from the village. One such character was Cilindro, ‘cylinder’, who was a town joker. Almost everyone had a nickname in the town. Il Padone was called so as he couldn’t pronounce his r’s as a child, they called him padone instead of padrone (boss). Out of work hours the community would socialise in the circoli: clubs where men would play billiards, cards and drink. Women worked in the house and gathered after dinner around the fire in the winter: chatting, embroidering, knitting. There was also a cinema which would come to the town every Sunday and take place in a small room. Neda describes the films they saw, often dubbed American films. They were dubbed as a lot of people would have been illiterate, films are still usually dubbed in Italy and it is considered a real skill.

40.00 There were a lot of town traditions that would be carried out in Castelfranco di Sopra. They would have the festa della grandine, ‘hailstone festival’. People from surrounding towns would have a procession to the church in Castelfranco with their priest and pray that the hailstones wouldn’t ruin their crops. There was also the Corpus Cristi/Corpus Domini; the whole town would collect flowers from outside the town and gather them in piles of different colours which they would use to make mosaics with the petals on the roads. Different parts of the town would then compete against each other. She goes on to describe her first communion- she got up very early and they would dress the girls in elaborate bride dresses. The priest was a very important person in the town, Neda describes him, everyone would obey the priest in those times. The church was strict; they would have to wear long socks, long sleeves and their head would have to be covered to go into the church.

53.00 The town was built in the 1200s or the 1300s so there is a very old church which Neda describes. The family home was built in the 1400s and Neda describes it as very old and strong. During the bombings in the area, the family would hide underneath the door arches as they were very strong. Church mass was carried out in Latin until the 1960s. They would learn the words by heart, often not understanding them. In Tuscany people study and speak what is considered ‘pure’ Italian, though slang is still spoken.