In the late 19th century, agricultural life in the Tuscan countryside had an orderly rhythm marked by the seasons, rituals, and social customs. The lack of transportation necessitated the presence of a figure to connect the farms with neighboring villages. This was the Treccone. The term derives from the Tuscan verb “treccare” (to sell by the minute) and the Latin verb “tricari” (to deceive). A skilled figure who purchased valuable goods directly from farmers and resold them to retailers and manufacturers. This local trader was trusted by everyone, and as he wandered the farms, knowing of young girls of marriageable age, he could put in a good word …

A traveling vendor, often with a penchant for cheating. He bought and resold foodstuffs: chickens, rabbits, pigeons, juniper berries, honey, eggs, beeswax, lard, and pork bones. He traded sheep wool and goose feathers to make duvets and mattresses, as well as rabbit skins to take to Montevarchi or Alessandria, where Borsalino hats were made. The rags arrived in Colle di Val d’Elsa from Paradisi, who then resold them in Prato to make fabrics.

Each Treccone had its own collection area. In March 2014, in Staggia Senese, I met Vinicio, who (like his father, Alfredo) had been a Treccone all his life. A horse was used until 1940, and then an old Fiat Balilla. He told me about his life as a merchant, a good hustler who talked well but acted badly. Nearly he bought 10 quintals of juniper berries and resold them in wheat bushels (a bale was three bushels), 100 kilos of honey a year, and who knows how much wool…

And immediately Aroldo comes to mind; I was 6 years old and he used to come to Casalvento. Ida (the farm’s housewife), who prepared dried rabbit skins for him, gave him the 5 kilos of juniper berries I had collected. I, who dreamed of who knows what kind of profit, received only 1,500 lire. The prices were always low: 1 kilo of chicken feathers was worth 100 lire, but duck feathers even 400-500 (to be sold for 1,000)… and when they resold the live rabbits, they fed them first to make them heavier.

The juniper berries purchased from Treccone first went to Florence, then to Livorno, and from there to England, where (it is said) “Gin” was made.

This gin was a mysterious drink, and no one in Chianti (at the time) knew about it !