ABOUT US

We are three women between 54 and 62 years old.

Feminists.

One day we met, intertwined three adventurous life stories, backpacks, books, botany, chess, conferences, craftsmanship, dancing, dating, daughters and sons, dinners, documentaries, dogs, events, exciting issues, exhibitions, free flight, games and toys, images, horses, hotels, houses, jobs, love, magic, movies, nomadism, opportunities seized and lost, parties, partnerships, photos, projects, self-consciousness, separations, shops, sport, strong relationships, travels, thoughts, triumphs, walking, writing…

And today we are together in the Sciare’s project.

Following her own wishes, each one of us has a role in the management of Le Sciare, according to her capabilities, knowledge, personal inclinations.

FIORELLA CAGNONI

I was born in Milan in December 1947. I participated in students’ movements of ’68, and militated in Tribuna Rossa and then in Lotta Continua.

In 1973 I met the women of the Collective of via Cherubini, some of which founded in 1975 the Women’s Bookshop in Milan. Since then I have ties to that practice and those women.

Among the founders of Il Circolo della rosa in Milan (1990), I took part from the beginning in the projects of Trust Nel Nome della Donna (2004), and Le Sciare (2006).

With Maria Gregorio I did translations from German for the publisher La Tartaruga (Gisela von Wisocki, La lanterna magica - Ombre Immagini Figure di donne, 1979) and with Sylvie Coyaud, from English, again for La Tartaruga (The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction by Patricia Highsmith) and from French.

Since 2005 I’m the editor of La Chiocciola series (Zane Editrice), whose authors include Marc De’ Pasquali, Sylvie Coyaud, Angela Cascone, Maria Enrica Castiglioni, and me.

I have published a political essay Valle del Belice Terremoto di Stato (Contemporanea Editions, 1975), a philosophy manual Quattro Gatti (Four Cats, Zelig 1995), short stories Due racconti (Two Stories, La Chiocciola 2006).

But my true passion, inherited from my mother, are detective novels. In my thrillers Questione di tempo, Incauto Acquisto, Arsenico (La Tartaruga, 1985-2002, 1992, 2000) and Alice Carta in Inghilterra (La Chiocciola 2007), I perform and describe the feminine society surrounding me. I am working on a new novel with my amateur sleuth Alice Carta.

LUCILLA PAGNANI

I was born in Rome on the 14^th of May 1953. Rebel and feminist since my birth, I join the students movements in 1969. My passion for photography, the movies and the theatre led me to political practice with the Collective La Comune of Dario Fo and then at the San Diego cinematografica with Renzino Rossellini: there I make my first adaptations of political movies and my first audiovisuals.

I organized events and shows, such as the concert of Inti Illimani at the Palasport in Rome, during demonstrations against the coup in Chile, or the Estate Romana in Forte Prenestino.

I became conscious that I was not the only one suffering the disparities of women through the Feminist communist Collective of via Pomponazzi, and the first women’s assemblies at Buon Pastore.

Meanwhile at the University, militating in Democratic Medicine, I chose neurological rehabilitation and specialized in language’s problems.

I got married and have two children.

I became teacher of speech therapy (Logopedia) in masters’ courses.

During Hospital work, I got more and more and more involved with patients in coma, and awakenings.

Fifteen years later my first passions, never really spent, are again my main occupation. I work in a photographic agency, and in television productions, where I write dialogues for TV movies and documentaries, and where I created the first Italian school of video journalism, financed by the Ministry for Work: a double positive action, as for the first time we offer women, more than men, a professional, highly qualified, course.

In my documentaries I try to narrate different realities, and for many years I have been particularly interested in surviving matrilineal societies.

In 2008 I met and embraced Le Sciare’s project.

GIOVANNA FOGLIA

I was born in Milan on the 27^th of February 1956. When I was 21 years old I met the women’s movement, which had recently rented the headquarters in Viale Col di Lana. I participated in the first alternative projects such as Scalocchio and Le Cetine, but then almost immediately, on an ideal of nomadism, I left for America, buying in Philadelphia an enormous school bus that – transformed in a caravan – took me, and many other women, for seven years of adventures to Mexico, Guatemala and California.
 

I then stopped on the island of Cozumel where – alone, slowly – I built 27 flats, that I rented and still rent to women, also through American gay guides. In 1994 I started free flight, which soon became my prevailing passion. Meanwhile, in Mexico, I moved from Cozumel to Xpu-Ha, on the coast between Playa del Carmen and Tulum, in a property of 2000 square meters, overlooking one of the most beautiful sea in the Caribbean. Here an example:

I built a house on the beach, designing it to suggest a seagull: a central round stone body and two wings in red brick. No picture really gives the idea.
 

While it was built, I still lived on the island at some twenty kilometres by air, so I directed the works going to and fro in a fabulous flying dinghy.

I lived in Xpu-Ha until 2007, when I sold the property, in order to complete the restoration of Le Sciare. Sometime in 2004, I had the idea of the Trust and I develop it with my friends. That same year, with ten other women and a credit line from the Trust, I relaunched in Milan the Cicip club, renaming it Ricicip, remodelling both its physical and associative structures. I put a lot of energy and time in that project, spending 7 months of the year in Italy and just a few in Mexico.

The Ricicip was successfully reborn, with many many women in Milan supporting and enjoying it.

 

It made me want to come back to Italy, but first I had to find a place like Xpu-Ha.  And between 2005 and 2006 I found its colours, its peace, “lu sule, lu mare, lu ientu” – the sun, the sea, the wind – in Salento, and this why the Mediterranean headquarters of the Trust are at Le Sciare.

Nowadays I live there, trying to make Le Sciare self-supporting. We have many Projects, quite a few Wishes, some Dreams and – most of all – a lot of Work…

 

 

GUESTHOUSE
   FOTO

Le Sciare is a bare ownership of the Trust Nel Nome della Donna (In The Name of the Woman), and its Mediterranean headquarters.

Therefore, our Guesthouse is not just a B & B like many others, open to anyone: it is only for women, and particularly for the women who sharing the project of the Trust, appreciate and support its intents.

For this reason we do not ask prices for the rooms, but free contributions to Le Sciare and the Trust, in order to uphold their accomplishments, not as a source of income for the women living there.

There are several rooms for our guests. Most of them (Aria, Mantagnata, Brunese, Stelle, Mangiatoia, Palme) are in the Guesthouse, which is part of the Masseria, inside the walls.

A living room and a large collective kitchen, with air-conditioning, are available to the guests. They can obviously access all gardens, passages, patios, swimming-pool, orchard, vegetable garden, pine forest…

All the rooms are spacious and furnished with care, with typical vaulted ceilings. All have an en suite bathroom and shower, heating, Internet, telephone, TV, mosquito nets at the doors and windows, an inner phone to contact other rooms and the residents’ houses, and a remote control to open the entrance gate.

Each room opens into a veranda furnished with paintings, sofas or benches, tables and chairs for reading, breakfast or conversation. Each has a name, for reasons we are going to see.

 

(AIR)
 

It is the room on the North East corner, overlooking the alley to the sea on one side, and the horses’ paddocks and pastures on an other,  and the gardens on the third. It is decorated in shades of blue, very large, with a king-size bed and two armchairs, an inlaid marble table, a double wardrobe, a stylish mini-bar. It has individual air-conditioning, and a bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub.

Its name comes from being exposed to the breezes, from all parts of the compass.

It has a connecting door to the Mantagnata, for stays of three or four friends wishing total privacy while maintaining close contact.

With Mantagnata it shares a veranda with a large table, six chairs, little tables and a bench.

As a Milanese friend who stayed in Aria for weeks said: “it is a mansion, a sail with three winds. From one window, there is Tuscany, horses and goats, from the other the Old Appian Way leading to the main gate with a sun and a moon, and the sea wind.”

The contribution we ask for Aria starts from € 120 per night. For single occupancy, starting from € 80 per night.

 

      

               (SHELTER)

 
A “mantagnata” is a place sheltered from the wind and the rain, and from the hottest sun.

It is a large master bedroom decorated in shades of beige and brown, with a king-size bed, a large marble table, and individual air-conditioning.

It opens into the veranda and the entrance garden, the fountain and the Arches’ pergola. It communicates with Aria, and shares its veranda.

The contribution for Mantagnata starts from € 100 per night. For single occupancy, starting from € 70 per night.

 

 

The name comes from the Sciara (witch) Brunese, whose legend we tell in Da dove viene il nome del paese Melendugno? in the page Domande.

  It is a large bedroom in shades of sea green, for four women. It has actually two master beds, an armchair, chairs, a large worktable.

  Overlooking the Garden of the Banana Trees, in front of the path leading to the swimming-pool, it is cool in summer and warm during the winter months.

The contribution for Brunese starts from € 150 per night. For double occupancy, from € 90 per night.

 

                                                 (STARS)
 

A mini-suite in blue and green colours, for four women, it has two communicating master rooms.

In the first one there are the worktable and a wardrobe.

In the second one, the dark blue ceiling is decorated with stars, hence its name. We wanted its vaults painted like that because when we started the restoration works, the roof had collapsed and the ruined walls seemed to enclose the starry sky.

The contribution for Stelle starts from € 160 per night. For double occupancy, from € 110 per night.

 

 

                (MANGER)
 

 When Le Sciare was a productive farm with domestic animals and stables, this was the main manger for the cows.

  It is now a master room, furnished in shades of orange. There a large worktable, chairs, and a capacious cupboard.

Slightly smaller than Aria or Mantagnata, still very comfortable, it feels safe, warm and cosy. Its veranda is very quiet, closed on one side by the  outer walls with a passage to Le Palme apartment. 

The contribution for Mangiatoia starts from € 80 per night. For single occupancy, from € 60 per night.

 

 

(PALMS)
 

A real apartment for four or five occupants, its name comes from the palm trees in the front garden.

It can be accessed from the main entrance through the Guesthouse gardens, or from the rear of the fortification – next to the outer staircase leading to the rooftops. From there, you can see a wide panorama of fields, forests and sea, and in clear evenings, and they are often clear, spectacular sunsets and the Milky Way.

Palme has its own veranda, with a garden, a big table and chairs.

In the apartment, there is a spacious country kitchen, fully furnished, and a table for six, with a sofa that turns into a single bed, for a fifth occupier. A door leads to a first master bedroom, in the shades of green, with work desk, two valuable wardrobes, chairs.

From this room you enter the second one, with a double bed and another wardrobe. Both rooms have their own entrance to the bathroom.

From the kitchen a door leads to a small patio, with a table and chairs, in front of the Torretta Margherita, and the entrance into the second bedroom, allowing greater autonomy and privacy to its occupants.

Men accompanying the guests of Le Sciare can stay at Palme.

The contribution for Palme is from € 200 per night. For two occupiers, from € 130 per night.

 

   

                              (TOWER MARGUERITE)
 

The former water tower takes its name from our friend Margherita Tosi, who first visited us at Le Sciare, when the restoration was just starting.

Right at the edge of the pine forest, a few steps away from the outer walls, it has two floors and plenty of space around it, next to the horses’ grounds and the alley towards the main entrance.

Downstairs there is a kitchen – in shades of green, fully equipped, and a spacious bathroom. Upstairs, a bedroom with a wardrobe and a desk. The small first-floor landing gets its light from an old coloured glass pane.

It is a lighthouse on land, always cool, and surrounded in summer by grasshoppers and butterflies.

The contribution for Torretta Margherita is from € 90 per night. For single occupancy, from € 50 per night.

 

 

                                           
 

The apartment The Wood has its own private entrance, furnished with a large and fresh veranda overlooking a beautiful garden and the road leading to the pine forest.

It consists of two double bedrooms (Willow and Claudia), a single bedroom (Debbie), a study with Internet line, a spacious kitchen furnished and equipped with everything you need, a bathroom, and hallway spaces

It 'also available for the male guests accompanying friends of Le Sciare. You can take, being five, the whole apartment. Or a single room. The contribution we ask for The Wood is from 160 Euros per night (for a maximum of five occupants).

The contribution for two occupants of the room Willow is from 80 euro per night. For one occupant, from 60 euro per night.

The contribution for two occupants of the room Claudia is from
70 euro per night. For one occupant, from 50 euro per night.
  
 

Debbie's contribution starts from 40 euro per night.

Of course, kitchen, bathroom, closet and outdoor areas are to be shared with the other guests of The Woods.

P.S. If you like to see pictures of the rooms, click on the names in the ceramics.

CAMPING
 

The camping area is close to the pine forest,  the golf hole and its small lake. There are toilets, showers with hot water and washing basins.

We ask a contribution from € 5 per day for the small tents (one/two women), € 10 per day for the big ones. And for every occupant, from € 5 per day.
 

 The caravan has a large bedroom with closets and bedside tables; a living-room with a kitchen range, a refrigerator, a table and a writing desk, shelves, bookshelves and cupboards; a bathroom with a small tub. There is hot water, of course, and a fast and efficient heating system.

 The caravan is under a pergola, close to Torretta Margherita, with whom it shares a little garden, overlooking the horses’ grounds.

 The contribution for Caravan is from €40 per night for two occupants For single occupancy, from € 30 per night.

ROULOTTINA (LITTLE CARAVAN)
 

   Located between the Bananas’ Caravan and the camping area, it is small but comfortable, with a double bed, a single one, a little kitchen.

   Its occupants use the facilities of the camping.

   For the little Caravan, we ask a contribution from € 30 per day for three occupiers, € 25 for two, € 20 for one,

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THE SURROUNDING

All the Salento is full of art and worth to be travelled far and wide. From prehistoric traces to Messapians’, and Romanesque and Baroque. It combines elements of Byzantine art, Greek, Norman. Small kiosks resting among the olive trees, dolmens and Menhirs, castles and Aragons’ towers, churches, altars, frescoes, medieval villages and fortified farms ... and then the parks, and caves. And the sea, the cliffs, a varied landscape - and the most beautiful air and sky in Italy.

 And they are not strenuous and tiring trip. You go - by car - from the Adriatic coast to the Ionian in less than an hour, and you go to Leuca, around the Cape of Otranto, and then Gallipoli in less than two.

 Not wishing to make long trips, even in the immediate vicinity of Le Sciare there are cities and villages worth visiting: Lecce, famous for its baroque architecture, Melendugno, San Foca, Roca, Otranto, Acaya, Acquarica of Lecce, Borgagne, Calimera, Martano, San Cataldo, Vernole... And the park Le Cesine - oasis of rare beauty, managed by WWF: 620 acres of rich and varied vegetation, and a large variety of wildlife and migratory birds.

 SPORT AND ACTIVITIES

At Le Sciare we have a very nice par 3 golf hole, with different start tees and a lake and a bunker creating difficulties around the green. Golf Club Acaya is also only 7 km. away from us (18 holes - Par 71, 6.192 metres).

Without going out from the property, just walking through an underpass, you reach the sea-side, with very quiet sand beaches. And Le Sciare has a warmed pool.

For those who prefer the bicycle: the Salento area is studded with bike paths that cross olive trees and the Mediterranean brush, in silence and in the chiaroscuro of an uncontaminated land.

We have at Le Sciare several horses, two of them that can be mounted for horse riding on the beach or in the nearby. And at short notice we can arrange rides on an old carriage pulled by Fiorello, our blue-eyed white horse.

Le Sciare has a large pine-forest of 10 hectares, where you can stroll or jog, and find edible mushrooms, wild asparagus, and many species of plants.

If they likes gardening, our guests can help in the gardens, in the orchard, in the vegetable garden – and then cook and eat the collected products…

We have goats, so we produce delicious goat cheeses – one can learn how to do them…  

THE CULTURE

Lecce is a culturally alive and full of events town, - from film festivals to an important Opera’s season. But the whole Salento is characterized by a strong cultural ferment. Over the last few years it has been able to plan its own cultural offerings, organizing events as well as greater emphasis on its territory outside of the region and abroad. For instance the Notte della Taranta, with one single concert date in Melpignano, for several years covering almost the entire summer, reaching all municipalities in the Greek Salento and also others related to the myth of "Taranta", or Salento Negroamaro the review, which includes the presence of artists of the first bands, or even the Baroque Prize, which officially opens the summer of Salento. The events of the local tradition, village festivals, fairs, wine tasting, gastronomic and historical events, however, are more popular with tourists and travellers especially in summer, but now you can say all year, crowding the area. With more than 100 villages in the single province of Lecce, within which there are on average 3 / 4 events of this type, it is easy to say that in Salento is a holiday all year round.