ANDREW SHAW

Field Atlas · Val di Pesa

The Ground Itself

Every place on this map is real. You can drive these roads today — though the map is drawn as Enzo Bellini might have drawn it.

The Map Room

Drag to Survey

Pan the chart with your hand. Hold anywhere to raise the loupe. Press a wax seal to open the field notes.

? VAL DI PESA e dintorni · after the notebook of E. Bellini N Arno Pesa Elsa la via antica FIRENZE TAVARNUZZE the slab · lo scavo SAN CASCIANO in Val di Pesa la villa CASTELFIORENTINO M·P· — milia passuum TERRA INCOGNITA the road continues · Liber II I II III IV V

Drag to survey · hold to raise the loupe · press a seal for the field notes.

Five seals. Five doors into the story — none of them spoil it.

The Property's Papers

Four Prints

Found loose in the villa's papers. Click one to lift it; click again to turn it over.

Print: Florence from the road

The city, from the road in. — E.B.

B.C. 1965–01
Print: San Casciano market

Market morning. She was right about Tuesdays. — E.B.

B.C. 1966–07
Print: the villa above the valley

The house above the valley. Mine, while it lasts. — E.B.

B.C. 1965–02
Print: the old Roman road

The old line of the road. It does not bend. — E.B.

B.C. 1968–11

Four prints from the property's papers. Turn them over.

A deep limestone gorge in the hills, sheer walls hung with green, a stream threading the floor

Between the Pins

The Wild Country

The map keeps its towns in neat capitals, but the ground between them does not stay tidy. The old road has to find its way across ravines like this one — sheer stone, a thread of water at the bottom, and a name the locals only half want to say aloud.

Not every place in these hills is on a signpost. Some are only remembered.

Index of Small Places

The Gazetteer