048 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



time. The interior courtyard, the bell tower and the 

 watch tower are the oldest sections, while the facade, 

 which the visitor first sees on approaching the monastery 

 was not founded until the sixteenth century. It was 

 used continuously as a monastery until the year 1861, 

 and the colony consisted of about fifty monks. Even 

 at the present time there are two monks associated with 



to Florence in 191 1, it is still the summer neadquarters 

 for this school, that is, from June 1 to July 15 and from 

 September 15 to October 15, when the professional 

 students are given a portion of their field training and 

 it also serves as the location of one of the State sup- 

 ported ranger schools. Before the war, there were 150 

 students in the ranger school at Vallombrosa, which con- 

 sists of a one-year course. Most of these students spend 

 three years as forest guards before going to the ranger 

 school at Vallombrosa for final training. 



Before serving as forest guards, they spend one year 

 at the ranger school at Citta Ducali in the Abruzzi, near 

 Apulia. On the successful completion of the ranger 

 course at Vallombrosa a degree of brigadier is given 

 them, whereas a few of the very best men are given the 

 tit'.e of marshall. On completion of the ranger course 

 at Vallombrosa, the men as brigadiers get 1800 lire, 

 which normally is equivalent to about $360, whereas the 

 marshals receive 2400 lire, equivalent to $480. While the 



ITALIAN FORESTER'S HOME 



A cottage home of a forester in the valley of the Casentino, made 

 famous by Milton, Dante, Keats and St. Francis of Assisi. In the 

 background is the well-known Castle of Fioppi, where one of the 

 robber barons held sway during the Middle Ages. This is in the 

 valley east of the forests of Vallombrosa. 



the monastery during the summer time and one during the 

 winter. In 1869, the monastery was converted into the 

 Royal Forestry College, which continued at Vallombrosa 

 until the year 191 1 when the school was moved to the 

 Cascine Gardens on the outskirts of Florence. One of 

 the most interesting features of the monastery is the 

 old type of kitchen used in the Middle Ages. It con- 

 sisted of a raised fireplace in the middle of the room 

 around which the monks sat and prepared their meals, 

 the smoke going up through an aperture in the center of 

 the room. It is said that the kitchen was the only really 

 warm room in the whole monastery, and during the 

 winter it was consequently used not only for a kitchen 

 but for general purposes as well since there was ample 

 room to sit all about the fire which was maintained in 

 the center. The old monks' cells were converted into 

 dormitories for the faculty and students of the forestry 

 college, and even at the present time, visitors are enter- 

 tained in the old cells of the Benedictine monastery. 

 Special cells are now reserved for the annual visits of the 

 Minister of Agriculture, the Director General of For- 

 estry, their staff, etc. 



It is a quaint and interesting old place, situated in a 

 deep silver fir-clad gap in the high mountains about 

 Vallombrosa. Although the forestry college was moved 



AN ITALIAN REBECCA 



An Italian water carrier with her copper vessels and fiascos at a 

 wayside spring. This was taken at a village along the high mountain 

 divide in Tuscany. 



students are at Vallombrosa, they receive two lire extra 

 or about forty cents per day. The professional course 

 students from Florence are always kept separate from 

 the ranger students while at Vallombrosa. 



Every visitor to the Forests of Vallombrosa is shown 

 by the local forest officials the shrine of Saint Giovanni 

 Gualberto in the deep fir woods above the monastery, 

 and the story is related of an old legend which tradition 

 has handed down from the past nine centuries. It is 

 said that this sainted monk acquired a great reputation 

 for miracles in healing the sick, etc., and during the 

 course of one of his meditations at his lonely hermitage 

 in the forest he was suddenly confronted by the devil 

 himself. A bitter fight ensued in which the devil was 

 very badly worsted and eventually tossed down a rocky 



