
Encircling woods
Chi: Il Querceto
Innovation is a filosophy in a all women bio tourism agri resort
Her idea comes from her mother’s family, from her grandmother Maria and her mother Nancy, and has taken root in years of work and studies in the enormous forested area at the center of the Lucanian National Park, il Parco Nazionale Appennino Lucano Val d'Agri Lagonegrese, where she used to spend her holidays. Today, as a practical entrepreneur, Francesca’s Querceto is a very successful example of bioagriculture and bio-architecture, a working and teaching farm, certified eco-biotourism, associated with the major organizations and brands of quality environment, culture and tourism.
In the first place, the woodsare a source of energy but also a refuge in which one practices tai chi, a natural itinerary and orienteering, and farther on, where it turns into grazing lands and fields, a space where one gathers herbs for natural remedies, discovers the diversity and dynamics of nature, grows apples, barley, spelt, grapes, olives and a great assortment of ancient grains. In the vegetable garden Sarconi IGP beans, asparagus, card, artichokes, medicinal herbs and numerous native varieties are cultivated. In the renovated stone farmhouses both older and younger guests enjoy preparing bread, honey and batik.
In the simple but comfortable guestrooms, in front of the fireplaces or outdoors, under the arbors, one can listen to music and taste recipes handed down through several generations, with touches of spices and vegetarian specialties and traditional local products can also be purchased.
From the Querceto one can take off, equipped with proper gear, maps and helpful information, for various excursions in the area, for mountain biking, free climbing, orienteering, snow shoes, or simply to encounter those who know intimately the old stories of the area and live in the cultural context of a rural society. Justly called ‘spiritual itineraries’ these excursions take you to Monte Volturino, nearby lakes, sanctuaries, Murgia di Sant’Oronzo, to the high valley of the Laura and to Monte della Madonna nera, ancient places that recall mystical and exotic cults.
The most symbolic? The walk with the Goddess. As Francesca explains: “an excursion from the Querceto to the hill of Civita, below the stone village of Marsico Vetere, passing by the spring of the Mother Goddess, an ancient votive area in the woods. A magical path not only because of its natural beauty but especially because it was the ancient route of prehistoric peoples and ancestral matriarchal cultures: a perfect line that has descended through the centuries to the ideal of female inheritance that I have received from my mother.
INFO
IL QUERCETO
Località Barricelle
85050 Marsicovetere PZ
Francesca Leggeri
info@ilquerceto.it
0975 69339
http://www.ilquerceto.it/