masterplan
Strengthening family bonds in Sinalunga by Larry Basirico
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taly seems to be on everyone’s bucket cloud formations. list these days, so when the prospect One of the benefits of staying at a of having a reunion in Tuscany is villa in the Tuscan countryside is the suggested to family members, it creates proximity to so many towns and cities a mystique that immediately threads that can be visited for a few hours or a them together. full day. Planning and taking daily But family reunion relationships can trips become group building activities, be complicated. Each unit develops its as are the conversations about them at own internal culture, its practices and the end of the day: the narrow street in ways of approaching the world. In our Pistoia that your car nearly got stuck family of childhood, typically parents in, the inspiring Etruscan gallery you and siblings, we learn the look on dad’s visited in Arezzo, the aromatic cheese face that tells you and your siblings shops lining the streets of Pienza, the he’s really serious this time, the funny art and architecture of Montepulciano, Lunch at the Villa, from left, the author’s wife, Stephanie Basirico, and so much more. These visits soon way your brother communicates that only you and your siblings understand, across from her Micki Stewart, next to Stephanie, Chris Onulak, reveal one of the core values of Italian across from him Priscilla Starling. the inside jokes about your favorite culture – family comes before profits uncle, the way mom cooks your favorite dish no one else can – when you learn you have to structure your trips around the match, the seating arrangement at your dinner table, the rituals midday shop closings so shop owners can eat with their family and that are unique to your family. friends. What better value for your family to ponder during a By the time we’re adults, most of us also have a family of family reunion. adulthood – our spouse or partner and our children, if we have any Your family’s focus on the region’s culinary delights is so – that develops its own culture, which may be different from our noticeable that it barely needs mention: the villa’s brick-oven family of childhood. When people have reunions with their family pizza and bruschetta, local prosciutto, cinghiale, cheeses, olive of childhood, their family of adulthood and the families of adultoils, truffles and wines. The realization that wine is more than just hood of their siblings, there is the potential for a clash of cultures a beverage but the lifeblood of Italian culture and the centrality of and differences of opinion about the important things in life. the Italian dinner table reinforce to you, as a family, that there are Having your family reunion at a villa in Tuscany and the no differences among family members that outweigh this collective profound unifying experience it creates is often the antidote experience and the shared memory that you are creating that will to possible relationship pitfalls. last a lifetime. Even before Italy’s charms take hold of your family, commonaliAbout the author ties become established and entrenched with reports of everyone’s Larry Basirico, PhD, is professor of sociology, trek to the villa: the mix-up at the car rental agency, the nerveformer chair of the department of sociology and wracking autostrade, the Lamborghini that sped by so fast you anthropology, and former dean of international didn’t have time to see its color, the terrifying accounts of cars programs at Elon University in Elon, North Carolina. trying to pass between each other on two-lane roads, the tailgater In 2013 he served as Elon’s study abroad faculty-inwho was nearly in your backseat, your GPS and cell phone that residence at Accademia Europea di Firenze (AEF): were out of range. For those who arrived by train, there are stories School of Arts and Italian Culture in Florence. He is author of The about disrupted schedules, one-hour rail strikes and missed Family Reunion Survival Guide: How to Avoid Problems with connections. Yet, all is well. You made it. It’s Italy, and one of the your Family Without Avoiding Your Family. charms of Italians is that they take it all in stride because they Originally published in The Florentine magazine (Issue 248, have the wisdom that life is too short to get upset about things September 2018) in Florence, Italy, is reprinted with permission. beyond our control. It’s not only the shared sense of avventura, but also the realization that we all are now here at a villa that is more beautiful than we could have imagined and that we have entered this fantasy-come-true, together, as a family. The iconic beauty of the Tuscan landscape seems immediately familiar and you have a sense of feeling at home: the winding roads lined with tall cypress trees, hilltop towns in the distance, castles that seemingly appear from nowhere, vinecovered pergolas, terraces saturated with olive trees, unannounced wineries and agriturismi, protective stone walls surrounding medieval towns and, above Villa Scopetello, Sinalunga, Italy, the Basirico Family Reunion destination. all, breathtaking sunrises, sunsets and
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