When I was a child, in the 1980s, my friends and I spent entire days cycling along the country roads around Pontassieve, where I lived with my dad and mom. They were carefree days. Among the most enjoyable summer rides along the Via Colognolese was the one around a beautiful stone farmhouse, where there were countless trees bursting with delicious cherries. We ate them in abundance, our mouths full and our faces smeared with red juice, and every time the farmer who lived on that farm saw us, he would shoot salt at us... What a laugh and what a scare as we escaped on our bikes.
As an adult, and already involved in winemaking, I had the opportunity to meet the owners of that farm, and during a long plane ride, we began a slow, exhausting, and meticulous negotiation that led us, on December 30, 2015, to purchase the Bisarno farm. I had regained a piece of my adolescence. Now we had to get started!

The first restoration lasted approximately 19 months, from December 2015 to July 2017. They were both very challenging and beautiful months. The first task was to study the soul of the place. Bisarno exuded both rural beauty, simple and essential architecture, such as wooden tables, Tuscan terracotta floors, a large farmyard with a pergola and paving, a large fireplace, brick arches, a chicken coop, the stone and brick facades of the house, a barn with a splendid wooden portal worn by time (which I immediately fell in love with and which first became the cover of a book and then the graphic element of the house logo), the surrounding hay bales: a sweet, graceful, simple ecosystem, where we truly felt our roots. After all, our grandparents had been farmers and sharecroppers between Pontassieve, Pelago, Monteloro, and Casentino. Not only that, in the last twenty years in Bisarno wonderful parties and theatre workshops were organised, there was a music rehearsal room in the cellar of the barn - where BAR(N) is now based - a wood artist lived and worked there, inspired by one of the windows of the house which looks out onto the hills of Montefiesole and the Pievecchia tower.

And every time a friend came to visit, to see the space, we were magically drawn into a spiral of conviviality, a desire to be together that led us to spend days in the farmyard, or by the sound of the fireplace, turning lunch into a snack, and then into dinner without anyone wanting to leave. A bit like the Etruscans who lived in this area 2,500 years ago, or the farmers. A vision of life that was savory, epicurean, without frills, where luxury was and is only in the present, in being with the right people, in sharing something beautiful together. The idea, therefore, the guiding spirit behind the renovation was to maintain this dual presence and modernise it for a family living their life in the 21st century. And so we did!

The interior of the house, within the walls, is splendid, but the true wonder of the Bisarno farmhouse complex is the exterior: when we bought it, the garden was a bit neglected, but we could see its potential. Over the years, we've restored the farmyard, dividing it into a lawn area and maintaining the paved area. On the paving, we installed a splendid iron pergola with table grapes, which fill with black bunches from August and, from September until November, provide us with wonderful yellow and red foliage.
We've also created an outdoor kitchen, complete with a pizza oven and a barbecue. Making pizzas and grilling with friends is so much fun! This area is the centerpiece of our celebrations, whether it's the wedding or the Fava Parties we host every year.
On the opposite side, we've installed a lemon house, where we can store our citrus trees in the winter. We stop here every now and then: it's wonderful on winter days to enjoy the 20-degree temperature thanks to the south-facing windows, and eat alongside the scent of orange blossoms.

Downstairs is my vegetable garden, called the Orto dei Nati Crooked (The Garden of the Crooked Ones). More or less every season has something to pick: artichokes, saffron, strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, pumpkins, broad beans... or some fruit: apricots, plums, cherries, figs, persimmons, jujubes—which have always been present here—pears, almonds, the beautiful pomegranates, the many citrus fruits I have, strawberry trees, walnuts, and more. And then I also have a section of our field dedicated to blackberries, which I tend as if they were vines: and the blackberry jams are delicious. Last but not least, near my house, I keep a border dedicated to aromatic herbs: myrtle, rosemary, basil, parsley, coriander, thyme, lemon balm. Everything you need, in short, for tasty meals!
We'll discuss the barn and manure heap below, but the farmhouse also had a chicken coop and a pigsty, a two-story stable that now houses the heating system for the single-story house (while the other storey houses garden furniture in the winter), and a historic well—used in the Middle Ages to "raise" the Bisarno tower and its fulling mill—which marks the end of the property.

Quando abbiamo comprato Bisarno, il fienile era una delle strutture più affascinanti, con la sua scala a pioli che connetteva il piano alto e il piano seminterrato. Abbiamo per i primi 5/6 anni, utilizzato il fienile come ambiente di stoccaggio e, durante le feste, aprivamo il portale in legno e ci mettevamo i vini, oppure suonavamo delle canzoni.

Durante il periodo mezzadrile il fienile serviva per contenere il fieno, entravano i carri dei buoi, si affinavano i formaggi e si lasciava che i prosciutti tirassero, mentre al piano superiore, quello ingentilito dai mandolati, finestre in mattoni di cotto che lasciano entrare l'aria, si facevano essiccare le uve per la produzione del vinsanto. Al piano seminterrato vi era invece la cantina del fienile, dove si vinificava. Negli ultimissimi anni, invece, qui si trovava una studio di registrazione musicale. 

Insomma, il fienile è sempre stato un grande protagonista. Poi, dal 2023 abbiamo iniziato a ristrutturarlo, lavori che si sono conclusi a giugno 2025. Anche gli esterni che abbiamo destinato al fienile sono carichi di storia contadina. La pergola in ferro battuto, che ricorda un po' le atmosfere sognanti di Mary Poppins, si trova nella antica concimaia, dove i contadini facevano maturare le deiezioni animali, le cacce, di pollo, di cavallo e di mucca, per creare il concime che poi veniva dato negli orti!