Rosanna Colonnelli
Rosanna Colonnelli was born in 1953 in Pitigliano. She grew up in the historic centre. Her family had a house in Via Vignoli, in La Fratta, the street parallel to the main road on the opposite side of the ghetto, which Rosanna still owns today together with a storehouse where once families brought their home made bread to be baked in the communal oven.
Her grandparents lived on a farm above Valle Orientina, just outside Pitigliano. Their house was built by her great-grandfather; her grandfather remembered helping to carry the stones for the construction.
Her parents used to cycle every day from Pitigliano to work the land belonging to her grandparents, and at home they mainly ate what they produced themselves on the farm: seasonal vegetables, chickens, pigeons, and pork. Her father was one of the first members of the dairy cooperative in Sorano and worked very hard, she remembers. Shopping was limited to a few basic goods such as salt, sugar, and rice. Olive oil was produced at home and stored in large earthenware jars; the olive grove was located where the new town of Pitigliano now stands.
Grain was taken to the Celata bakery, who would mill it for bread. It was a barter system, people who left their grain would collect bread that was recorded in a small account book. Accounts were settled based on the grain delivered, and balanced each year after the harvest. As a child, she remembers being sent to fetch bread with this book, without money.
Christmas was a special time. Together with her parents she would go shopping at Elodia, a grocery shop in San Michele. It was a celebration, an event they called “la stocca”, (the stock-up) when they would buy special things: salt cod, panettone, and torrone. She also remembers wedding traditions: women would prepare sweets, and sometimes the Celata bakery made its kitchen available. It was a custom during weddings to distribute sweets to neighbors who had not been invited to the ceremony. Between the ages of seven and ten, she was asked to carry the “salviata”, a dish wrapped in a white cloth containing sweets to be distributed to neighbours.
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Rosanna in the front yard
At home everyone helped as best they could, and when given a task it was done without question. As a child, Rosanna did not cook much but helped when she could; she remembers once forgetting to cut the pasta sheets prepared by her mother, leaving them too dry so they broke, and she was scolded.
She would have liked to continue studying, but after middle school she was not allowed to and had to learn to sew.
As a girl she attended the Casa dei Giovani, the “Piti Piper”, where young people went to dance in the afternoons. She remembers going out with friends, often without her parents knowing, because at the time it was considered a scandal for girls to go out with boys. They went to San Michele and then dancing in Sovana, to friends such as the Merli or the Santarelli. Once they travelled by car in seven, five girls and two boys. At sixteen, together with a friend, she applied for a job at the Pitigliano cooperative winery; after two days they were called and started working. Rosanna stayed there for six years.
In 1975, at the age of twenty-two, she got married and moved to Sorano. Her husband, Bruno Bizzi, played drums in the band “Le Aquile”, and they met at the Piti Piper. Rosanna took care of the family, but occasionally began doing small sewing jobs, and once she also made a wedding dress.
She learned to cook well after marriage, mainly thanks to her mother-in-law, who was very skilled; the pasta dough, Rosanna says, “used to speak”, so thin it was like a sheet. It was so good that Rosanna only learned to prepare it properly over time, because when there were guests her mother-in-law insisted on doing it herself.
with her husband in their wedding day
Over the years she took an active part in the Sorano festival, helping to prepare tortelli, gnocchi, and fettuccine. Everything was made in large quantities, forming wells in the flour and adding 150 eggs for the dough. At first the women would knead the dough and call the men to turn the machines, because the work was very hard; later they bought a dough mixer and a pasta machine. In the early years she did not take part, also because sandwiches and grilled meat were offered and everything was voluntary. She learned to make tortelli there.
After her mother-in-law’s death, she found her recipes written on scraps of paper. The most surprising was that of pici, with no precise measurements, only “flour, a jug of water and salt”, with the jug used as a unit of measure. Many recipes also included the name of the person who had passed them down.
The dishes she most enjoys cooking are first courses and desserts. She is particularly fond of tozzetti, orange cake, which is her favourite, and zuppa inglese – a sort of trifle, much appreciated by friends. The orange cake recipe was given to her more than forty years ago by a friend she met while camping. As a child, traditional festive sweets were prepared: at Christmas tozzetti and sfratti, at Easter aniseed pizzas, and at Ferragosto a biscuit shaped like a figure eight. They also made jam tarts with homemade jam.
In her garden she also grows wild herbs: borage, wild fennel, and wild strawberries. In spring, “carletti” (strigoli) grow spontaneously, which she uses for pesto, omelettes, or salads. She also has lavender plants, used to make scented sachets, and sour cherry trees, which she uses to make candied cherries.
Antonello's family pictures
in hergarden while picking the black cherries
Ironically, today Rosanna has returned to live in a place called La Fratta, in the municipality of Sorano, where there was an agricultural outbuilding that once belonged to her father-in-law, now renovated and turned into their summer home. She also rents out a room to guests as a pastime; in winter she lives in the village. The land has always remained a passion; she takes care of plants, fruit trees, and the vegetable garden, and continues to gather wild herbs. Her husband played music until a few years ago, and together with their son they performed in a piano bar for eighteen years.
During her travels, she has discovered new recipes, such as Sardinian culurgiones, pasta filled with potatoes, cheese and mint, and from Trentino she has brought home a tool for making spätzle.
What Rosanna values most is keeping traditions alive—through food, memory, and the rhythms of rural life—while still embracing experimentation.