Eco-village Sambuca Pistoiese (Tuscany)

eco-villages in Italy a story for resilience food stories

Italy has around fifty ‘eco-villages’, so named by the residents themselves. The keynote of life in them is total sustainability. They are communities of people who have consciously opted for a life in harmony with nature and with each other. They are largely self-supporting. Each community has its own rules, but the fundamental principles are common to all of them: harmony with others and with nature, unanimity in decision-making, and shared ownership with the absence of private property that flows from it.

The Community of Elves

The community, of several dozen men, women and children of various nationalities and ages, several of whom have lived here for more than thirty years. They have made their home at the top of a mountain in the heart of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, at an altitude of 970 metres, in an old abandoned village.

eco villages in italy photography ruud sies

They live without electricity, water or gas and reject all the demands place upon us by a consumer society. The community has no private property.

Everything belongs to everyone and each person contributes to the community in their own way. They work the land by natural methods as well as keeping cows, chickens and rabbits.

The village is continually developing. Everything is focused on self-sufficiency and structures are built in stone, wood, straw and clay. Wood is collected for daily use and for winter fuel stocks. A vegetable plot is maintained, vegetables are conserved and jams are made from the fruit. The meals cooked and eaten are vegetarian, with vegetables from the vegetable plot, organic grains, and cheese from the community’s own cheese dairy.

Eight kilometres from the occupied world, this group of people lives united by the choice of a simple existence in harmony with nature and with each other, and a desire to celebrate life with music and dance.