Tuscany, an ancient farming village wants to be reborn thanks to PNRR funds

It is called Montefoscoli and is a village of just over four hundred inhabitants, a hamlet of the municipality of Palaia, in the Tuscan hills. The oldest part of the hamlet is located on the top of a hillock, around the church and the remains of the ancient castle: a farming hamlet of ancient origins, it is now unfortunately undergoing severe depopulation. However, the municipality of Palaia hopes to reverse the trend thanks to the call for bids intended for Tuscan municipalities for the redevelopment of villages, with resources made available by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). The one planned for Montefoscoli is a 20 million project designed to revitalize a beautiful corner of rural Tuscany with a very ancient history.

With the PNRR, the whole of Italy is looking for a revival after the pandemic, and Tuscany intends to take advantage of this opportunity by investing in culture, crafts, and the knowledge of yesteryear. “The key to the restart,” the municipality of Palaia explains in a note, “then becomes an innovation linked inseparably to the values of rural tradition, with rural life, marked as it is known by the rhythm but also by the unexpected events of the seasons, becoming a true example of resilience.”

The challenge for the village of Montefoscoli is to give new life to a now increasingly uninhabited hamlet, to a Villa Fattoria that for centuries represented the “head” of an entire territory, directing agricultural choices and processing the agri-food products that were grown on its properties, and transforming it now into an innovative center dedicated to development and research on the economic and social revitalization of Italian villages. An ambitious challenge that aims to be in line with the European and national mission of Smart Villages: reinterpreting Tuscany’s agricultural vocation according to models of ecological, digital transition and social inclusion.

Several degree programs from the region’s university hubs (Pisa, Florence and Prato), as well as national companies involved in open innovation, start-up incubation and acceleration, and technology transfer, have joined the project to revitalize and invest in Montefoscoli. The project includes new social housing to bring new citizens to the borough, temporary housing for students from Tuscan and national universities to thus support the opening of new economic activities and an economic revitalization of the borough with new functions to serve local agribusinesses, represented by Italian excellences such as Castellani Vini, Villa Saletta, Savini Tartufi, Morelli Liquori, and Usiglian del Vescovo.

There will also be space forcontemporary art, which is at the center of the proposal with dedicated spaces and a festival coordinated by Associazione Arte Continua that aims to bring the international contemporary art world to Montefoscoli, to increase its attractiveness and intercept flows of slow and experiential tourism. Finally, space for digital transition: the village is envisioned as a place to experiment with the most innovative VR and augmented reality technologies to enhance the visitor experience.

The project is supported by local realities and numerous public and private entities at the national level (such as Entopan Smart Networks & Strategies) and is flanked by a major private investment of 8 million euros by Castellani vini, which is recovering more than 120 hectares of land around the Borgo to organic agricultural functions and with agritech technologies. “A solid and valuable proposal, up to the challenge: we want to become a national example,” says Marco Gherardini, mayor of Palaia, who signed the expression of interest for the Tuscany Region public notice.

Pictured is a street in Montefoscoli.

Tuscany, an ancient farming village wants to be reborn thanks to PNRR funds

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.