Arriving in the Valley will be stepping into a territory inhabited by a true People, with the courage, audacity, madness, and creativity to settle in houses, farms, and hamlets abandoned for decades, perhaps even longer.
The People of the Elves have come here sporadically, drawn by a call, a philosophy, shared knowledge, a departure from urban contexts towards a new way of living in simplicity, where time expands, where haste makes no sense, where the seasons and nature, powerful, dictate the steps of man and his actions.
Days marked by simple, anarchic, different, and yet similar rituals. Smiles, bushy beards, colorful clothes brought from distant travels. Everyone is welcomed in a special way, but no one is left out: there’s always room for one more at the table!
Fire, stove, woods, chestnut groves, Tibetan flags peeking through the thicket, drums in the forest, yurts, goats, cows, and cheeses, an almost self-sufficiency in food for some households. The winter snow, as high as only in the Apennines now. Circles around the fire, the Moon Festival, where all the households gather every month, under the shimmer of the moon, at one of the communities that populate this valley. Households to reach on foot, in a land where paths reign supreme over roads, naturally unpaved.
We will be guests in this territory rich in 40 years of stories, lives, passions, and contradictions, of pulsating experimentation where another way of living is not only possible but has been and still is realized.
Our godmother in this valley will be Antonia, a being who smiles with her whole self, who will host us with her colorful Yurtarta. This place has already hosted events that have touched the hearts of many. Ellika, Manitonquat’s wife, and Simon with the Circle Way, the Piumani, have been here, and here their Vision was collected, and it also welcomed some volunteers from last year’s attempted RIVE summer gathering.
We will stay in the Valley for two days, visiting some of the communities, including La Cerchiaia, Aldaia, Case Sarti, and La Chiocciola, each with its own stories and identity.