Onelia Canini – Life Story
Onelia Canini was born in 1944. As a child, she lived in Ponte a Rigo with her parents, who were sharecroppers. In the early 1950s, the family moved to a small farm at the entrance of San Quirico, and later, a short distance away, to an area called Riservo, both under sharecropping. From there, as she herself says, she “jumped the ditch,” settling only a short distance away, where she still lives today with her husband.
In Ponte a Rigo, they lived as part of an extended family, together with their grandparents, uncles, and their respective families, for a total of sixteen people.
At the age of six, after school, Onelia was already sent out to graze sheep and pigs. Managing the pigs was difficult, and the dog helped her by keeping them under control and bringing back any that tried to run away. At that time, the farm was small, with little land and about twenty sheep, which brought in very little and had to be shared equally with the landowner.
By the early 1960s, the family, now composed of seven children — Onelia and her six brothers — moved permanently to the larger farm in Riservo. The new farm had much more land and far more livestock than before, including fifteen cows and calves, eighty sheep, a greater number of chickens, and other farm animals. Although the work was extremely hard — they often set off at three in the morning to work in the fields and then tend the sheep — life improved because the larger farm provided more food and greater stability for the family.
After they moved to Riservo and were able to graze more sheep, her mother and grandmother made ricotta from the sheep’s milk, which they sold to the shops in San Quirico together with eggs and sometimes a chicken. On the days when they made ricotta, it was Onelia who took it to San Quirico in a basket before going out with the sheep. Over time, she learned the route, cutting across the fields to make it quicker. In exchange, they bought pasta, oil, and sugar.
Onelia at her table
Onelia went to school up to the fifth year of primary school. She did well, but as she was the only daughter, with six brothers — five of them younger — she had to leave school early to help at home and in the fields.
When she was a child, cooking was very simple. For breakfast, besides milk when there was any, they ate polenta: with cheese, with sauce, or, while it lasted, with sausage or pancetta, from the pig. In summer they usually ate pasta at lunchtime, while in winter their diet was based mainly on potatoes, beans, schiacciata (flatbread) made with grapes or chestnuts. Supper always included soup; one in particular was called minestra di magro, a mixture of beans with finally minced pork fat, onion and whatever vegetables were available, which Onelia did not like much because of the pig fat. After the soup, there was bread with an apple or an orange, or a thin slice of ham.
Onelia did not like pancetta, so her grandmother would give her a small piece of sausage. This caused complaints from her brothers, who felt they were being treated differently. The meat from the pig was kept as a reserve for the winter: sausages preserved in oil, fegatelli under lard. Fresh meat was eaten only when the pig was slaughtered. The bones were salted and in the morning they were used to flavour the polenta. Onelia did not like it, as it took on a slightly sour taste.
Sweets were rare when she was a child: the occasional cavalluccio biscuit and panforte, on Christmas Eve.
Onelia remembers that as children they often ate pappa, made with bread cooked in water, and farinata, sometimes also called panizza. They toasted the flour, then mixed it with milk and water and put it on the fire; at the end they added a little sugar and a drizzle of oil, and that was the meal. For breakfast, if they had a cow, they drank cow’s milk; otherwise sheep’s milk. For lunch they ate pappa, panizza and small soups.
Her grandmother made pasta by hand. When it was time to make pici, she would call Onelia and they prepared them together; she also made sheets of pasta for tagliolini.
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Onelia with a lamb
As a girl, in the mornings she stayed at home with her grandmother. Her mother went out early to milk the sheep, and Onelia prepared the bread, kneading it until her arms ached. When her mother returned, Onelia went out to the sheep and her mother baked the bread. She loved making bread and it always turned out well. Now one loaf lasts them three or four days; there are few people in the house and she no longer makes bread.
In summer they did the “changeover” to summer clothes and a dressmaker came to the house to sew them. The fabric was bought in San Quirico, where a travelling salesman also sold cloth by the metre. To pay, they had to wait until the wheat harvest, and only then was the bill settled.
Sometimes they were taken dancing at nearby farms, walking at night. Because the roads were muddy, they carried a change of shoes. Once there, they went into the stable or under the oven, took off the heavy shoes and put on the others.
After marrying Pietro Guerrini in 1966, Onelia lived with her husband in his parents’ house. The farm, initially owned by the Ente Maremma, was later redeemed. At first Onelia was put in charge of the pigs: seven sows, as well as other pigs kept for household use. Later she persuaded her husband’s parents to get sheep too, although they always kept one pig for the family.
Even today they still grow vegetables and do a bit of sowing, and the farm still exists, but it no longer produces as it once did. No one buys hay anymore and it is worth very little. In the past they had many sheep, then they sold them, keeping only fifteen. Later, because of disease, some died and, to avoid the legal obligation of keeping a livestock register, they reduced the number to six. Today they keep only six sheep, bred for meat, just to have a few lambs for the household.
Antonello's family pictures
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Onelia and Pietro exchanging rings on their wedding day
Everything has changed a great deal. Onelia complains that agriculture should never have been “torn down”, referring to the political and social choices that over the years led to the sector’s gradual abandonment. Today costs are very high: from seeds to tractor maintenance to fertiliser. They also rent an olive grove in Sorano, but this year it produced nothing.
Onelia says that in her youth the atmosphere was joyful: there was great friendship with neighbours and they gathered often. On Sundays, if there was time, after finishing work they all went to Mass together; the roads filled with young people walking towards the village.
Onelia and Pietro in their kitchen today