Sentiero brigando
(outlawed path)
Sentiero brigando – the promotional video
The project
Sentiero brigando (outlawed path) is a hiking route designed and developed by Cellere’s Museo del brigantaggio in order to connect the museum to Pianiano, the village where Domenico Tiburzi was born.
The itinerary, punctuated by trail signs, is divided into five main stages. It starts from the museum and crosses through the parco del Timone, touching upon several historical, naturalistic and anthropological sites. Each of the path’s stages has been enriched with stories and thematic in depth analysis from five different narrators who, because of experience or education, have long known and frequented the Cellere territory. Their voices have been documented by the museum through a video-tale that is now available to the public.
The path’s length is approximately 4 km and the entire itinerary, which has no particular difficulties, easily takes a few hours to complete.
The Sentiero brigando stages
First Stage: Cellere’s Museo del brigantaggio. Narrator: Marco D’Aureli – the museum’s director
Second Stage: Parco del Timone (Timone park). Narrator: Elena Ronca – environmental hiking guide
Third Stage: Tiburzi’s cave. Narrator: Mario Olimpieri – local historian
Fourth Stage: the Manfroni Mill. Narrator: Antonio Manfroni – Manfroni Mill
Fifth Stage: Pianiano village. Narrator: Marianna Febbi – tour guide
Sentiero brigando – First Stage: Cellere’s Museo del brigantaggio
Narrator: Marco D’Aureli – museum’s director
The museum offers an overview of brigantry in the maremma region through the lens of anthropology, an imaginary journey between historical sources and contemporary testimonies that revolve around Domenico Tiburzi.
Cellere’s Museo del brigantaggio is a museum that focuses on storytelling and whose installments all revolve around the figure of Domenico Tiburzi. Known as the King of Lamone, Tiburzi, who was born in Pianiano in 1836 and died at the Forane di Capalbio in 1896, was the epitome of the Maremma brigand. The museum is organized in two main sections. The ground floor offers a series of documents of various natures, dating from 1893, year of the Processo di Viterbo, to 1896, through the use of ethnographic installations. Tying these documents together are extracts from Aldo Rossi’s news reports Nel Regno di Tiburzi. These tools show how the people back then saw and depicted the brigand in the years he was active. The upper floor gives visitors insight into contemporary stories and memories that, well over 100 years after his death, revolve around the figure of the so-called “giustiziere di Cellere” (Cellere’s avenger). The itinerary ends with an area that celebrates the commercial and promotional success of the “brigand brand” on the territory.
The Museo del brigantaggio aims to be a place to discuss and analyze the illegality that affected the Maremma in the second half of the XIX century and the related topics. The museum’s itinerary gives visitors key interpretations for an in depth analysis of the territory where these events took place.
Sentiero brigando – Second Stage: Parco del Timone
Narrator: Elena Ronca – environmental hiking guide
A place like the Museo del brigantaggio, or any ethnographic museum, shouldn’t limit itself to interpreting their collections but should offer interpretations on the landscape where the museum is located too. And what is a landscape if not a space, both imaginary and tangible, shaped by the stories of the people who have lived in it, passed through it and told its tales?
The Parco del Timone is located south of the town of Cellere and hosts a wide variety of flora and fauna. The park gets its name from the Timone stream, tributary of the Fiora river, that runs through its territory. It’s a place with a strong biodiversity and has characteristics that belong to several different natural environments. The Sentiero brigando walks alongside the Timone stream for a long stretch. The presence of “water lentils” is a testimony to the characteristic clearness of its waters. Many of the plant species that spontaneously grow in the territory and enrich the path with a variety of colours were used as food or as medicine, bearing witness to a tradition that has been lost in the collective memory of the woods and its extracts. The park’s territory, now completely inhabited and used solely a destination for hiking and trekking enthusiasts, used to be especially anthropized. It was a place for animals to pasture, for people to pass through and the location of several manufacturing activities. The abandonment of the area, mostly due to changes in economic and social needs, caused it to grow wild over time, a trait similar to many landscapes and woods of the territory.
Sentiero brigando – Third Stage: Tiburzi’s cave
Narrator: Mario Olimpieri – local historian
Some places look alike. The Tuscia territory is littered with caves. Natural caves or caves dug by men and then used for centuries after. What makes them unique are the stories that took place in their vicinity. Doesn’t matter if the stories are real or not. What matters is that they’re being told. Stories have the power to shape people’s imagination.
The mercareccia cave also known as Tiburzi’s cave was probably a natural cave that was enlarged and modified over time according to men’s needs, as evidenced by the presence of excavation tracks still visible on its walls. The entire Tuscia territory is littered with similar caves, some of which are still being used. The name by which this cave is universally known suggests it was a place used to brand livestock that was raised in the wild (a practice called “merca”) or, more generally, for shepherds and pockmarks to take shelter. The possibility that Tiburzi and his crew might have taken shelter in this cave cannot be ruled out, seeing as it is located right in the middle of what the journalist Adolfo Rossi called “Tiburzi’s Kingdom”. The cave’s typical double entrance creates, with the change in sun exposure, evocative plays of light when it hits the walls, drawing attention to the many marks left by the use of excavation tools.
Sentiero brigando – Fourth Stage: The Manfroni Mill
Narrator: Antonio Manfroni – Manfroni Mill
Even the mediterranean scrub speaks, it has stories to tell. And it does so using its own language. The sound of lapping water. The rustling of leafy branches. The drumming of a woodpecker. The squeaking of an old fence. The auditory landscape also confers a place its identity.
The Manfroni mill is a great example of industrial architecture. Very little is still preserved of the original building, as, after it stopped serving its function around the 1950’s, it underwent a rapid process of deterioration. The Mill made use of the waters of the Timone stream, duly channeled, to grind cereals destined for consumption by the families of Cellere. There are other mills powered by water along the Timone stream. In the past, when these factories were at their peak, they were a frequent destination for their clients; therefore the buildings were easy to reach for both wagons and pack animals. The existence of these relics proves just how different the area used to be compared to what it looks to visitors nowadays, more so a place dedicated to production and work rather than a naturalistic trail to hike for leisure.
Sentiero brigando – Fifth Stage: the Pianiano village
Narrator: Marianna Febbi – Tour Guide
Getting close to Pianiano is like watching a flower bloom. The village is a map of its stories, carved into arches, streets and lampposts. A show of lives, seasons and transformations. In front of the Pianiano city walls, walking along its alleys or taking a break in the small plaza, we can experience a time long gone in its purest form.
Pianiano village today is a solitary cluster of homes sitting atop a tuff cliff. The path to enter the village while following the Sentiero brigando goes through a small and fascinating excavated road. The residential area’s origins are ancient and it has been depopulated and repopulated several times during the course of its history. It was Benedetto XIV who, in the XVIII century, improved the fate of the small village which, during the 1600s had suffered a complete exodus of the residential population because of malaria. The pope offered Pianiano to several Albanian families from Scutari who had escaped persecution by the Ottoman empire. Traces of this historical landscape are still visible today in the local toponymy. The permanent residents take loving care of this small village by adorning it with plants and flowers and offering visitors, with a silent welcome, a warm atmosphere suspended in time, a palpable enchantment of everything that ever was, currently is, and will be.
Sentiero brigando – The complete Video
The complete video-tale of the itinerary
The path was designed to give visitors an immersive experience in the backgrounds and stories illustrated in the museum’s exhibition path. A project that marks the Museum as a space where people can carry out cognitive experiences, of aesthetic or rational nature that, when taken outside “the box”, can be turned into an opportunity to get to know the territory and the surrounding landscape.
The itinerary, punctuated by trail signs, is divided into five main stages. It starts from the museum and crosses through the parco del Timone, touching upon several historical, naturalistic and anthropological sites. Each of the path’s stages has been enriched with stories and thematic in depth analysis from five different narrators who, because of experience or education, have long known and frequented the Cellere territory. Their voices have been documented by the museum through a video-tale that is now available to the public.
Made possible with funds from the Ministry of culture – Bando Piccoli musei, Sentiero brigando was created thanks to a fruitful collaboration between different figures that operate in the sector of the promotion of cultural heritage. Elena Ronca, environmental hiking guide of the Percorsi etruschi association, who’s responsible for tracing the path through a collaboration with the museum that lasted many years. Simona Soprano, community narrator and cultural communicator who designed the concept and video-tale, and took care of both graphics and communications for the project. Francesco Saverio Russomanno, video maker, author of the shooting and director of the video. Next to them, as genius loci (term used to describe an individual that is almost a symbol for the place they live in), are Mario Olimpieri, local historian, Antonio Manfroni, heir of the family that owned the mill of the same name, and Marianna Febbi, tour guide. The entire project has been coordinated and overseen by Marco d’Aureli, director of Cellere’s Museo del brigantaggio.
The path is approximately 4 km long and the entire itinerary, which has no particular difficulties, easily takes a few hours to complete. The use of proper attire and comfortable footwear is recommended.
The Sentiero brigando stages
First Stage: Cellere’s Museo del brigantaggio. Narrator: Marco D’Aureli – the museum’s director
Second Stage: Parco del Timone (Timone park). Narrator: Elena Ronca – environmental hiking guide
Third Stage: Tiburzi’s cave. Narrator: Mario Olimpieri – local historian
Fourth Stage: the Manfroni Mill. Narrator: Antonio Manfroni – Manfroni Mill
Fifth Stage: Pianiano village. Narrator: Marianna Febbi – tour guide
Sentiero brigando is a venture promoted by Cellere’s Museo del brigantaggio, created with the support of the MIC and in collaboration with the Town of Cellere, the Percorsi etruschi associations, Comunità narranti and Cellere’s Pro Loco.
Sentiero brigando – the promotional video
The project
Sentiero brigando (outlawed path) is a hiking route designed and developed by Cellere’s Museo del brigantaggio in order to connect the museum to Pianiano, the village where Domenico Tiburzi was born.
The itinerary, punctuated by trail signs, is divided into five main stages. It starts from the museum and crosses through the parco del Timone, touching upon several historical, naturalistic and anthropological sites. Each of the path’s stages has been enriched with stories and thematic in depth analysis from five different narrators who, because of experience or education, have long known and frequented the Cellere territory. Their voices have been documented by the museum through a video-tale that is now available to the public.
The path’s length is approximately 4 km and the entire itinerary, which has no particular difficulties, easily takes a few hours to complete.
The Sentiero brigando stages
First Stage: Cellere’s Museo del brigantaggio. Narrator: Marco D’Aureli – the museum’s director
Second Stage: Parco del Timone (Timone park). Narrator: Elena Ronca – environmental hiking guide
Third Stage: Tiburzi’s cave. Narrator: Mario Olimpieri – local historian
Fourth Stage: the Manfroni Mill. Narrator: Antonio Manfroni – Manfroni Mill
Fifth Stage: Pianiano village. Narrator: Marianna Febbi – tour guide
Sentiero brigando – First Stage: Cellere’s Museo del brigantaggio
Narrator: Marco D’Aureli – museum’s director
The museum offers an overview of brigantry in the maremma region through the lens of anthropology, an imaginary journey between historical sources and contemporary testimonies that revolve around Domenico Tiburzi.
Cellere’s Museo del brigantaggio is a museum that focuses on storytelling and whose installments all revolve around the figure of Domenico Tiburzi. Known as the King of Lamone, Tiburzi, who was born in Pianiano in 1836 and died at the Forane di Capalbio in 1896, was the epitome of the Maremma brigand. The museum is organized in two main sections. The ground floor offers a series of documents of various natures, dating from 1893, year of the Processo di Viterbo, to 1896, through the use of ethnographic installations. Tying these documents together are extracts from Aldo Rossi’s news reports Nel Regno di Tiburzi. These tools show how the people back then saw and depicted the brigand in the years he was active. The upper floor gives visitors insight into contemporary stories and memories that, well over 100 years after his death, revolve around the figure of the so-called “giustiziere di Cellere” (Cellere’s avenger). The itinerary ends with an area that celebrates the commercial and promotional success of the “brigand brand” on the territory.
The Museo del brigantaggio aims to be a place to discuss and analyze the illegality that affected the Maremma in the second half of the XIX century and the related topics. The museum’s itinerary gives visitors key interpretations for an in depth analysis of the territory where these events took place.
Sentiero brigando – Second Stage: Parco del Timone
Narrator: Elena Ronca – environmental hiking guide
A place like the Museo del brigantaggio, or any ethnographic museum, shouldn’t limit itself to interpreting their collections but should offer interpretations on the landscape where the museum is located too. And what is a landscape if not a space, both imaginary and tangible, shaped by the stories of the people who have lived in it, passed through it and told its tales?
The Parco del Timone is located south of the town of Cellere and hosts a wide variety of flora and fauna. The park gets its name from the Timone stream, tributary of the Fiora river, that runs through its territory. It’s a place with a strong biodiversity and has characteristics that belong to several different natural environments. The Sentiero brigando walks alongside the Timone stream for a long stretch. The presence of “water lentils” is a testimony to the characteristic clearness of its waters. Many of the plant species that spontaneously grow in the territory and enrich the path with a variety of colours were used as food or as medicine, bearing witness to a tradition that has been lost in the collective memory of the woods and its extracts. The park’s territory, now completely inhabited and used solely a destination for hiking and trekking enthusiasts, used to be especially anthropized. It was a place for animals to pasture, for people to pass through and the location of several manufacturing activities. The abandonment of the area, mostly due to changes in economic and social needs, caused it to grow wild over time, a trait similar to many landscapes and woods of the territory.
Sentiero brigando – Third Stage: Tiburzi’s cave
Narrator: Mario Olimpieri – local historian
Some places look alike. The Tuscia territory is littered with caves. Natural caves or caves dug by men and then used for centuries after. What makes them unique are the stories that took place in their vicinity. Doesn’t matter if the stories are real or not. What matters is that they’re being told. Stories have the power to shape people’s imagination.
The mercareccia cave also known as Tiburzi’s cave was probably a natural cave that was enlarged and modified over time according to men’s needs, as evidenced by the presence of excavation tracks still visible on its walls. The entire Tuscia territory is littered with similar caves, some of which are still being used. The name by which this cave is universally known suggests it was a place used to brand livestock that was raised in the wild (a practice called “merca”) or, more generally, for shepherds and pockmarks to take shelter. The possibility that Tiburzi and his crew might have taken shelter in this cave cannot be ruled out, seeing as it is located right in the middle of what the journalist Adolfo Rossi called “Tiburzi’s Kingdom”. The cave’s typical double entrance creates, with the change in sun exposure, evocative plays of light when it hits the walls, drawing attention to the many marks left by the use of excavation tools.
Sentiero brigando – Fourth Stage: The Manfroni Mill
Narrator: Antonio Manfroni – Manfroni Mill
Even the mediterranean scrub speaks, it has stories to tell. And it does so using its own language. The sound of lapping water. The rustling of leafy branches. The drumming of a woodpecker. The squeaking of an old fence. The auditory landscape also confers a place its identity.
The Manfroni mill is a great example of industrial architecture. Very little is still preserved of the original building, as, after it stopped serving its function around the 1950’s, it underwent a rapid process of deterioration. The Mill made use of the waters of the Timone stream, duly channeled, to grind cereals destined for consumption by the families of Cellere. There are other mills powered by water along the Timone stream. In the past, when these factories were at their peak, they were a frequent destination for their clients; therefore the buildings were easy to reach for both wagons and pack animals. The existence of these relics proves just how different the area used to be compared to what it looks to visitors nowadays, more so a place dedicated to production and work rather than a naturalistic trail to hike for leisure.
Sentiero brigando – Fifth Stage: the Pianiano village
Narrator: Marianna Febbi – Tour Guide
Getting close to Pianiano is like watching a flower bloom. The village is a map of its stories, carved into arches, streets and lampposts. A show of lives, seasons and transformations. In front of the Pianiano city walls, walking along its alleys or taking a break in the small plaza, we can experience a time long gone in its purest form.
Pianiano village today is a solitary cluster of homes sitting atop a tuff cliff. The path to enter the village while following the Sentiero brigando goes through a small and fascinating excavated road. The residential area’s origins are ancient and it has been depopulated and repopulated several times during the course of its history. It was Benedetto XIV who, in the XVIII century, improved the fate of the small village which, during the 1600s had suffered a complete exodus of the residential population because of malaria. The pope offered Pianiano to several Albanian families from Scutari who had escaped persecution by the Ottoman empire. Traces of this historical landscape are still visible today in the local toponymy. The permanent residents take loving care of this small village by adorning it with plants and flowers and offering visitors, with a silent welcome, a warm atmosphere suspended in time, a palpable enchantment of everything that ever was, currently is, and will be.
Sentiero brigando – The complete Video
The complete video-tale of the itinerary
The path was designed to give visitors an immersive experience in the backgrounds and stories illustrated in the museum’s exhibition path. A project that marks the Museum as a space where people can carry out cognitive experiences, of aesthetic or rational nature that, when taken outside “the box”, can be turned into an opportunity to get to know the territory and the surrounding landscape.
The itinerary, punctuated by trail signs, is divided into five main stages. It starts from the museum and crosses through the parco del Timone, touching upon several historical, naturalistic and anthropological sites. Each of the path’s stages has been enriched with stories and thematic in depth analysis from five different narrators who, because of experience or education, have long known and frequented the Cellere territory. Their voices have been documented by the museum through a video-tale that is now available to the public.
Made possible with funds from the Ministry of culture – Bando Piccoli musei, Sentiero brigando was created thanks to a fruitful collaboration between different figures that operate in the sector of the promotion of cultural heritage. Elena Ronca, environmental hiking guide of the Percorsi etruschi association, who’s responsible for tracing the path through a collaboration with the museum that lasted many years. Simona Soprano, community narrator and cultural communicator who designed the concept and video-tale, and took care of both graphics and communications for the project. Francesco Saverio Russomanno, video maker, author of the shooting and director of the video. Next to them, as genius loci (term used to describe an individual that is almost a symbol for the place they live in), are Mario Olimpieri, local historian, Antonio Manfroni, heir of the family that owned the mill of the same name, and Marianna Febbi, tour guide. The entire project has been coordinated and overseen by Marco d’Aureli, director of Cellere’s Museo del brigantaggio.
The path is approximately 4 km long and the entire itinerary, which has no particular difficulties, easily takes a few hours to complete. The use of proper attire and comfortable footwear is recommended.
The Sentiero brigando stages
First Stage: Cellere’s Museo del brigantaggio. Narrator: Marco D’Aureli – the museum’s director
Second Stage: Parco del Timone (Timone park). Narrator: Elena Ronca – environmental hiking guide
Third Stage: Tiburzi’s cave. Narrator: Mario Olimpieri – local historian
Fourth Stage: the Manfroni Mill. Narrator: Antonio Manfroni – Manfroni Mill
Fifth Stage: Pianiano village. Narrator: Marianna Febbi – tour guide
Sentiero brigando is a venture promoted by Cellere’s Museo del brigantaggio, created with the support of the MIC and in collaboration with the Town of Cellere, the Percorsi etruschi associations, Comunità narranti and Cellere’s Pro Loco.
