An experience out of time, to find one’s stride again

It is rare to find corners of tranquility and authentic rurality. The Pompone and Pola farmhouse is one of them.

It has been for decades, for generations, ever since in 1943, Nello Cioni decided to buy forty-six hectares of land, clearing the houses, olive groves and vineyards of brambles: for him it was a return to the land, a farmer’s son lent to office work.

A few seasons passed, but by the 1950s Nello was already hosting its first visitors, earning a respectable record: the first agritourism license in Gambassi.

At that time people were running away from the land, and yet, here they decided to put down roots and carry on the more traditional art of Tuscan hospitality.

Since then the business has passed from father to son, and today, keeping up the challenge is his granddaughter Elisabetta, a 30-year-old who grew up on bread and farming culture.
In addition to taking care of the crops, she is among the heirs to the tradition of singing in ottava rima, the language with which in the countryside people sang, played politics, joked, and talked about the world and life.

And the atmosphere is still that: lunches on the farmyard, the big old fireplaces, grandma’s furniture, the coolness of the houses when the cicadas sing outside, the hammock and the starry skies. Agriturismo Pompone e Pola is not simply a place, it is an out-of-time experience to find one’s stride.

Don’t expect wi-fi, it’s not there and there is no pool, nothing to add. As Elizabeth says, it’s remained a place where you abstract and regain contact with the earth.

Some would say Spartan, others choose it for that very reason, because the essentials are invisible to the eyes.