In this museum we can find a kitchen from the 1920s, on the walls are the flatware built by local craftsmen. There are coffee grinders, jugs and small wooden containers that were used as measuring cups to dose water, flour or sugar. Everything was made at home by the peasant women who guarded a now lost art such as the 'burlaro', a tool used to make butter or cheese that was drained in the 'ferscella'. The women, called 'pedone', who went down to the Riviera along long, steep paths carried baskets on their backs. On the round lid of the stove known as the 'chitarra', an old copper pot kept the water warm for polenta. The carpenter's art is represented by the strange 'treipei' chair where they sat to carve and shape wood. The world of woodcutters is represented by the various tools hanging on the wall, such as resie and suracchi. The museum of rural civilisation in Vara Inferiore near small town of Urbe.
These objects are linked to legends: In a small village in a small municipality, sweet and ingenious nature gnomes found a home, the 'Varelfi', cute and tiny gnomes who have always been able to bring joy and serenity and also help those who live and love nature in our valley. Like when... not too long ago, as the peasant civilisation took its steps towards our present... in an old and simple house made of stones and a 'shingle' roof. An old farmer was trying and trying again to shake a jar of freshly milked milk. He had been wondering for days if he would ever be able to make butter from his cow's milk, but the task turned out to be more difficult than expected and it was then that he heard a tapping at the window, opened it and found a tiny elf with a strange cap and two big round eyes... a Varelfo!!!
".....cribbio... and who are you?"
"I am a Varelfo and I have been watching you from my tree for days! But why don't you try making a wooden cylinder with a stick in it? You will see that by putting the milk in and moving the stick up and down you will be able to re the butter!
"...But this is a joke and what you say sounds like a joke to me, a big joke!" Outburst the farmer
"... A joke... well... but more than true, you could call the tool 'Burlaro'... said the elf before disappearing.
So it was, and from that distant day, in our dialect the 'Burlaro' became the tool for making butter.
These objects are linked to legends: In a small village in a small municipality, sweet and ingenious nature gnomes found a home, the 'Varelfi', cute and tiny gnomes who have always been able to bring joy and serenity and also help those who live and love nature in our valley. Like when... not too long ago, as the peasant civilisation took its steps towards our present... in an old and simple house made of stones and a 'shingle' roof. An old farmer was trying and trying again to shake a jar of freshly milked milk. He had been wondering for days if he would ever be able to make butter from his cow's milk, but the task turned out to be more difficult than expected and it was then that he heard a tapping at the window, opened it and found a tiny elf with a strange cap and two big round eyes... a Varelfo!!!
".....cribbio... and who are you?"
"I am a Varelfo and I have been watching you from my tree for days! But why don't you try making a wooden cylinder with a stick in it? You will see that by putting the milk in and moving the stick up and down you will be able to re the butter!
"...But this is a joke and what you say sounds like a joke to me, a big joke!" Outburst the farmer
"... A joke... well... but more than true, you could call the tool 'Burlaro'... said the elf before disappearing.
So it was, and from that distant day, in our dialect the 'Burlaro' became the tool for making butter.
