We are still here! November is the month of new wine, and this circumstance reminded us of our travel experience from May 2009, in the Umbrian town of Torgiano (PG). It is a town of 6500 inhabitants, of medieval origin, which, like many others in the region, bases its economy on these two products, wine and oil, to which, however, it has even dedicated two museums. But let's go in order: in 1974 Giorgio and Maria Grazia Lungarotti created the MUVIT (Wine Museum) in the seventeenth-century Palazzo Graziani-Baglioni; the museum was created in support of the international wine economy and highlights the cultural aspect of the vine and wine in 5,000 years of history. In 1987, the Lungarotti Onlus Foundation was established, with the aim of formalizing the research and study activities relating to the artistic-cultural heritage kept at the MUVIT and, subsequently, at the MOO (Olive and Oil Museum), inaugurated in 2000, as well as cooperation with public and private, Italian and international cultural institutions. For more information on the history and activity of the two museums and the Foundation, as well as the economic activities of the Lungarotti world (winery, estate, agritourism), please refer to the Foundation's website: https://www.muvit.it/. So let's begin to illustrate our visit to the two museums, specifying that both are accessible to people with motion disabilities in almost the entire exhibition: at the MUVIT the 14 rooms on the ground floor are accessible, at the MOO, equipped with a lift, the entire path. The following text, in red, is taken from the Foundation's website:
MUVIT: Born in support of the international wine economy, the predominant interest in the dialogue between vines and decorative arts - constantly present and collected in sections - makes it in effect an interdisciplinary museum. The museum itinerary, developed along twenty rooms, offers over 3000 artefacts exhibited according to rigorous and scientific museographic criteria. Archaeological finds (Cycladic jugs and Hittite vases; Greek, Etruscan and Roman ceramics; glass and bronzes), tools and technical equipment for viticulture and winemaking, ceramic wine containers from the medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and contemporary ages, engravings and drawings from 15th to 20th century, cultured editions of viticulture and oenology texts, goldsmiths' artefacts, fabrics and other testimonies of decorative arts document the importance of wine in the collective imagination of the peoples who have inhabited, over the millennia, the basin of the Mediterranean and continental Europe.
MOO: The museum is located in a small nucleus of medieval houses within the castle walls. The route winds along eleven rooms and opens with information drawn up by the C.N.R. on the botanical characteristics of the olive tree, on the most common cultivars in Umbria, on the traditional and cutting-edge techniques of cultivation and oil extraction, accompanied by maps on the historical diffusion of olive growing. The subsequent rooms, set in the premises that were already the site of an oil mill active until a few decades ago, house a rich documentation relating to the history and evolution of oil machines. The route continues on the two upper floors, where the presence of oil and olive trees in everyday life, the uses and values attributed to them over time are documented in sections: the mythological origin of the plant, the importance of olive growing , from the Roman economy to the medieval revival up to recent centuries, oil as a source of illumination, in Mediterranean monotheistic religions, in medicine and nutrition, in sports, in cosmetics, as a source of heating and as a significant element of an imaginary popular that the plant and the product derived from its fruit has attributed - and still partly attributes - symbolic, propitiatory, apotropaic and curative values.
And the sculptures? They arrive immediately, but first let's take a look at the most important medieval testimony of Torgiano, the Baglioni Tower, about which we find some more information on this website of the Municipality of Torgiano: https://www.turismotorgiano.it/ita/15/monumenti-e-luoghi-di-interesse/1/torre-baglioni/
Let's now visit the village of Brufa, a fraction of the municipality of Torgiano, of which we have news since 1350. It is inhabited today by about 600 souls and for further information there is this site:
https://www.iluoghidelsilenzio.it/castello-di-brufa-torgiano-pg/ from which we draw the following text: In 1987 the “Scultori a Brufa” event started, organized by the Municipality of Torgiano, the Province of Perugia and the Pro-Loco of Brufa. One of the most original and modern artistic experiences is taking place on the Brufa hill, which emphasizes the union between sculpture and landscape. The sculptures that are permanently placed every year on this hill in the Torgiano area are intended to be evidence of the encounter of art with the natural environment and above all with the men who have modeled it and who continue to transform it. And then let's see some of the sculptures installed in Brufa between 1987 and 2009, when we went there; if you go there today you will find the others located in these 12 years:
What to say then? Hoping for the summer of San Martino, this may be the right time for a visit to Torgiano to stock up on wine and oil, admire some works of art immersed in the landscape and visit these two original museums that we have tried to illustrate.