Pastoraio

Number of permanent residents: 12 people, including children
Year of foundation: 1994
Open to new members: yes
Welcomes volunteers: yes
They welcome visitors: yes

Pastoraio: a refuge among chestnut trees and radical hospitality.

Deep in the heart of the mountains, where the path becomes steep and the road gives way to a slow pace, we reach Pastoraio: one of the oldest realities of the Elven world, with a history rooted almost forty years ago. Founded as a spontaneous settlement and later partly acquired through a curious legal settlement, Pastoraio is now a small rural village that mixes self-management, hospitality and cyclicity, among chestnut trees, vegetable gardens and fences to be rebuilt.

The central activity is the chestnut: harvested, dried in the recently restored metato, and processed until it is peeled, then taken to the mill to be ground into flour. The work is organized according to who is passing through and who stays: some stay for months, others for a few weeks, but every hand contributes and every presence is welcomed with the typical generosity of the place.

Four or so people make up the usual core, but the number can fluctuate with the pace of the seasons and energy. Subsistence farming is practiced here with seasonal vegetable gardens, a small orchard, and chickens. Dreams and plans include a new greenhouse, the return of a pig, and a more stable group to protect and enhance the immense potential of the place: 20-30 people could live here in shared equilibrium.

Pastoraio is also a place of great contrasts: always open to all, it has experienced periods of light and shadow. Its radical, unfiltered welcome made it a refuge even for those who brought disorder and pain. This exposed it to difficulties. But the door has never been closed. Those who come are welcomed. Then it is seen.

“It’s a place that doesn’t turn away anyone who shows up,” says Mario, who lives there permanently, aware of the risks but also of the strength that comes from this simple and profound gesture. This is how things are done in Pastoraio: they build, they maintain, they repair. And once again they try to live together.