Italian Tours: Interview with Dario

A Brief Chat with Author Dario Castagno

Q: I see that you consider yourself Tuscan but then I read that you were born in the Wimbledon district of London.

I just happened to be born there because my father was importing Italian wine into Britain, so I grew up the first years of my life in London until my parents who are both Italian decided to move back to Tuscany. I was nine years old.

Q: Do you still have contacts in England?

No, curiously I only returned once and it was for punishment in 1982. I must admit though that having had my first part of education in England certainly left a rather strong British imprinting in me, I certainly was raised a bit of a toff.

Q: You mentioned the word punishment, what did you do?

Well let's just say that at the age of fifteen I was expelled from school without getting into any further detail.

Q: As you wish. What was it like for a child moving to Italy in the seventies?

For me the change wasn't so much moving from England to Italy but the fact that I moved from a large city like London to a small farmhouse lost in the Chianti hills. I had no problems with the language because we spoke Italian at home and we tried to live in full the Italian traditions when at home. Then at the age of fourteen my parents purchased me a Vespa and my life changed drastically.

Q: Can you be more specific?

Well, together with my renegade friends we started exploring the countryside and we realized that there were a bounty of uninhabited farms, even entire villages due to the fact that the area had been abandoned by the farmers in the 50's and 60's. These places became our getaways from a changing world we refused and we would throw great big feasts in them. We would spend our days roaming around the area seeking and exploring them and spend time bathing in the rivers and creeks. It was great fun. So much that it became a sort of obsession for me and I started inquiring about those structures and paid visit to the local archives trying to learn all about the history of the area.

Q: And what did you discover?

I realized why these lands gave birth to so many geniuses, it was a logical consequence of a mixture of cultures from the Etruscans to the Romans without omitting to mention the Lombards and the Franks. But what intrigued me the most was the simple life the peasants lived for centuries, I envied their life style even if I'm sure I certainly over-romanticized it as it was definitely not fun and games, if it was they would have never abandoned the land would they?

Q: I suppose not, I see that you started working very young, were you not a good student? By what I gather you were extremely interested in history.

I was a terrible student, so bad that at fifteen I was kicked out of high school for good and ended up working in a winery, then I became a fireman and in my early twenties I founded Rooster Tours with the intent of taking small groups of tourists to discover my secret places in Chianti.

Q: Why Rooster Tours? And was it successful?

The Rooster is the symbol of the consortium that controls the quality of the local wine: the Chianti Classico. Cock tours would have sounded a bit funny don't you think? It took a few years to get going but then finally it worked. Yes I can say it was extremely successful but mostly because I never enlarged it or mixed groups together.

Q: So why do you not conduct tours any longer?

At a certain point I was fascinated by the fact that so many books were written by foreigners that came to purchase our abandoned homes and restored them into holiday homes. These books are interesting but I thought it was time for a local to write the opposite version. Instead of a foreigner that describes Tuscany and the Tuscans how about a local that describes Tuscany and the foreigners that come to Tuscany?

Q: You are obviously talking about Too Much Tuscan Sun-the Confessions of a Chianti tour guide, but why did you stop conducting tours?

Well originally I self published the book but when it got published by a "real" publisher and became a bestseller I realized that I wasn't taking people that were willing to discover my secret Tuscany but wanted to meet me. At that point Rooster Tours had no more purpose to exist and so I delegated the tours to others and for a few years I decided to isolate myself totally from the world.

Q: I'm sure you are not telling me the entire story.

No, not entirely.

Q: Do you consider yourself an author?

When I wrote the first no, I never thought that I would have had a second book out, but an incredible series of coincidences occurred all in one day and was obliged to write A Day in Tuscany. Now that a third book is completed to answer your question..I suppose so.

Q: You are about to depart on a two month tour throughout the US, what do you think of America?

I love American people, when I visit your country I get spoiled and everyone gives me so much importance, it's a strange sensation participating in talk shows and signing autographs and I doubt I will ever get used to it. I do find the US to be a bit isolated in a certain way.

Q: What do you mean exactly by isolated?

I can give you one example...I was zapping on the remote control in my hotel room when I came across a softball game. I think it was Kentucky versus Georgia and they called it the World Series! The team that wins the NBA are proclaimed World Champions and to get any news of what happens outside the US is a task.

Q: Well your books got a hell of a lot of praise in the US press, the NY Times listed your book among the notables of the year.

Well they were published in the US. I can't get over how my simple life is considered so exotic in America.

Q: And your daily life?

I live as a hermit, single, isolated and lonely.

Q: Are you satisfied?

Look, all I really need is the possibility to live fully immersed in my natural element and I'm happy.

Q: And what would that be?

The silence of my beloved Chianti hills