Agricola Querciagrossa

The "Azienda Agraria Querciagrossa” is an ancient farm belonging to the noble family Tommasi Aliotti for centuries.
This farm is located in the hilly areas of the Valdichiana valley, close to Arezzo, and it consists of the old properties of the family coming from Cortona. It is 50 hectares large, which are subdivided as following: 40 hectares are used to grow corn, sunflowers and wheat; one hectare is used to grow olive trees (this is where a splendid “olio extravergine di oliva” – oil, called Le volpaie, comes from!) and seven hectares are vineyards. There are three different types of grapes to make wine: Sangiovese, Sirah, and Merlot. The latter is employed to take the wine called DOC Cortona “Civettaia”, an excellent Tuscan red wine which you will be able to try from 2005. The farm also produces an excellent Vinsanto (a kind of wine) called “Le Selvacce”.
Vinsanto is a typical Tuscan desert wine, whose name comes from a funny anecdote set in Florence during the Renaissance. The name (“vin” means wine and “santo” means holy) is indeed linked to the divine goodness of the wine. Our vinsanto is made with the best grapes, which are then put to wither in a windy space called “appassitoio”.
The bunches of grapes are then left there for three months, under the lovely attention of experts. At last the wine is made and left in kegs for at least two years.

The Tommasi Aliotti Family

Tommasi is the surname of a noble Tuscan family which finds its roots in the founder Boscia, who lived in the 1200.
The family tree can be seen in the Agriturismos reception. Apparently the family has a French extraction, coming down to Italy with Charlemagne. Then the Tommasi family has always lived in Cortona, becoming a powerful and influential group.
If you come and visit Cortona, you may find at least ten places with the Tommasi coat of arms in the front.
There are also three villas in the city’s surroundings which belong or belonged to the family: Villa Tommasi in Metelliano, Villa Pompili in Sant’Angelo and Villa Sandrelli in Camucia. There is also a square dedicated to the Tommasi family in the city centre.
Many young Tommasi became Knights of Malta and they often had important roles in these groups of knights. Two members of the family were fleet admirals and fought against the Turkish knights. They won and the Malta knights gave two flags to a church in Cortona.
The most famous character in the family is definitely Giovan Battista, the Grand Master of the knights of Malta and the last of them to actually live and own the little island as “Prince of Malta”. He was then exiled by the French and unable to go back to his loved Malta. This is why he died in Catania in 1805, a city in Sicily very close to the new “motherland”. Giovan Battista Tommasi is celebrated in the cathedral of Catania where he was buried, in the cathedral of Cortona where there is a cenotaph of his, in the cathedral of La Valletta in Malta and in Cortonas Museum where his bedroom is.

Other members of the Tommasi family had key roles in the military, religious and cultural environment of Cortona. In the XVIII century the Zefferini family left in bequest to the Tommasi family the “Querciagrossa” estate and a palace in Cortona. At the end of the XIX century the Aliotti family left in bequest the surname and the splendid villa called “Prato Antico” in Arezzo.
At the end of the XIX century an American magnate bought from the Tommasi collection two of Luca Signorellis paintings, which nowadays belong to private collection in the US. A ceramic work by Della Robbia (whose family was related to the Tommasi’s) can now be seen in Amsterdam, coming from the Tommasi’s family collection.