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Ecomuseo del Casentino - Museo della Castagna [Casentino Ecomuseum - Chestnut Museum]

In the ancient little village of Raggiolo, a museum has been set up with a fascinating itinerary through the ancient stages of cultivating, harvesting and processing chestnuts. The itinerary unfolds from a chestnut grove to drying racks still in use, to a chestnut mill and then on to the museum.

The Museum consists of various sections: in the first are displayed simple instruments used locally to harvest chestnuts. In the next sections, the successive stages of drying and hulling are illustrated. The itinerary concludes with a section dedicated to the domestic sphere.

In the village of Ortignano there is an educational workshop on chestnuts, where children can handle and work with all of the materials and the elements they have met with in the itinerary.

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Texts by Graziano Magrini

English translation by Catherine Frost

Last update 28/feb/2008