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The ghost of Chito
A story of fear
It is the story of a man, whose name was probably G. Chiti, who inspired one of the most curious local popular legends for the border between the territories of Florence and Siena. It is a story particularly suitable to be told sitting around the hearth in the evening to keep the young and old on the straight and narrow.
The story is that of the ghost of Chito, the damned soul of a 19th-century Tuscan farmer and hunter.
He was a gruff man obsessed with enforcing his borders and apparently lived in one of those farmhouses with an adjoining tower, typical of the Tuscan landscape. The Chito seems to have lived in a building of medieval origin in the province of Siena. We are located right where the Sienese border wedges itself into the territory of Florence like an enclave. From that place, the movements of the Florentine castle of Barberino Val d’Elsa were monitored.
The facts told by tradition
Returning to our gruff Chito, sometimes described as an ogre, one late evening he had to contend with an umbrella maker from Poggibonsi who was passing towards Tignano, taking a shortcut through Chito’s property. The two squabbled, the Chito defended his border preventing the umbrella holder pass and even threatening him. But when the tension rose beyond measure, he fired a shot from the rifle hidden between the sticks of the umbrellas carried under his arm, and the Chito was killed.
Since then, the ghost has haunted anyone who passes along that road, perhaps still in an attempt to defend the border. Some have perceived it on their wagon, those who have heard it in the woods, even who have seen it fishing together with Cinatti, another Tignanese ghost. It even seems that in the 1960s, during the works for the construction of the Autopalio (Siena – Florence road) a bulldozer had to stop because it would have disturbed the tomb of the Chito. The worker recounted the terrifying vision of the ghost that had forced him to abandon the construction site.
A particular interpretation
This legend probably set between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries apparently belongs to a more complex reading linked to the history of the place. It is essentially a story characterised by the obsessive defence of a border, right at the point where the province of Siena ends today, and that of Florence begins. The two rival cities in the Middle Ages, allied only once against Semifonte, were probably considered threats from outposts, guards and castles on the borders.
“Beware! the Chito is watching you “
To the story of the Ghost of Chito in Barberino Nascosta
A few decades ago, the children of Barberino Valdelsa were told “Beware, the Chito is watching you!”.
In this way we mean the ghost, in reality, it makes us think of a very different and real fear of life in previous centuries. Therefore, we could detect a sort of cultural trace of the bad memory of past clashes or tensions experienced by the ancestors in a border area between the two noteworthy rival cities.
Thus, as happens with local cults, even in such legends of fear, one can imagine overlapping, stories coming from different generations through the centuries and stratified one on the other. From the ghost defending its borders, it is all too easy to project one’s imagination to the fear of crossing a nearby border between two rival powers.
Just as the characteristic landscape, heavily modified over the centuries, speaks of the transformations experienced by man, even a simple story from an evening vigil could allow us to glimpse secular elements of life and moods of the community.
All this is part of the experience of visiting these places that offer the opportunity to immerse yourself in the cultural landscape perceiving a millenary history that still lives in the buildings, streets and stories that have been handed down for generations.
We will tackle these tales and other stories on 23 August 2020 with “Barberino Nascosta”
Collaborate with Summofonte
If any reader had further news or oral sources to provide. Or information to correct what is written above we will be happy to cooperate. Of course, if anyone has news of the ghost, let us know!
