Pieve di Cerreto – Borgo a Mozzano

13th JUNE 2019

As is often the case in Lucca, I met Penny and Keith at a gathering of ex-pats and Italians one sunny afternoon at a bar/restaurant on the walls of Lucca. They often travel into the centre of Lucca from their home near Borgo a Mozzano and are keen to improve their language skills with other like-minded residents. In June they invited me and co-friends Kate and Arnold to visit their place tucked away in the countryside.

Penny and Keith are a ‘retired’ couple who had taken the step to immerse themselves in the Tuscan way of life when they bought an abandoned farmhouse. They are a couple not daunted by a huge project, to convert a shell of an old building into a beautiful idyll with stunning views. They managed, over several years to complete the renovation that included new floors, walls, kitchen, bathrooms, water, heating and lighting throughout, as well as the ever-present Italian building regulations and bureaucracy.

Directions to find them meant taking the main road to Borgo a Mozzano and on through the town, heading above towards the small village of Cerreto. The village takes its name from the surrounding cerri forests and in medieval times was divided into two villages Cerreto Basso, now part of residential Borgo a Mozzano and Cerreto Alto where Penny and Keith live. We met in the small square by the old St John’s church and walked down the winding path across what Keith explained, was partly their land and their neighbours and where the boundaries were indistinct.

Now fully restored, their home is on three/four floors with a useful out-building Keith uses as his workshop, kept in immaculate order in line with his military background as a Captain. We both agreed that it is important to plan retirement, which does not necessarily mean giving up work but creating hobbies and other interests such as walking and growing their own produce, including olive oil.

Their generous hospitality included antipasto, homemade bread and pizzas cooked in his delightful small pizza oven located on the small first floor terrace, that offered stunning views across the valley.

Their enviable lifestyle, something many of us dream of but few achieve was, as they both admit, not easy but the product of much hard work and dedication.