Gli Elfi di Valle dei Burroni (Pistoia). Scegliere di ritornare alla montagna ed educare alla sostenibilità. Un esempio di vita alternativa in Toscana

Abstract

The community of Pistoia Elves was founded in 1980 by the will of a small group of people who have chosen to re-inhabit an abandoned village in the municipality of Sambuca Pistoiese, and grew on since then composed of many people who have followed in the valley life. The community is located in a fairly vast area including the upper Appennino Pistoiese and the Valley of the creek Limentra. The most accessible town (and the most open to community life) is near Montevettolini, a village overlooking the Limentra, called with the elfish name of Avalon. The community of Avalon consists of a large farmhouse and other small housing units in clay and wood, connected to many other homes, more clinging to the mountain and spread across the difficult but beautiful territory of the Apennines. This paper is a testimony of the experience of the mountain community of Valle dei Burroni in relation to the wider elfish community. The intention is to witness a true return to the mountain life and to narrate one of the first examples of repopulation of the mountain in Italy, as well as to reintroduce the ancestral concept of the existence of commons and the importance for the community of their resistance in the area. Throughout the narrative of this sustainable and alternative reality, Territories are considered as a common good. A very ancient concept but decisive for the evolution of the contemporary culture of territory and landscape.