There is a beautiful love story that concerns Prato della Contessa, a large plateau at 1400 meters above sea level on the slopes of Mount Amiata, surrounded by majestic beech trees and fir trees that smell of resin. The lawn owes its name to an episode that saw as protagonists the countess Gherarda degli Aldobrandeschi of Santa Fiora and the young Adelardo, feudal lord of Chiusi, who very often devoted himself to gun tournaments and knightly competitions.
In one of these competitions, held in Buonconvento, Gherarda met Adelardo and was immediately caught by his charm. Gherarda fell in love with the knight at first sight and did everything she could to arrange an equestrian tournament through the monks of the Cistercian Abbey of San Salvatore, where she spent a few months of the year studying, with the secret aim of seeing the lord of Chiusi again. The monks chose a flat territory, the only one possible, that of Prato (“field” in Italian) which was later called “of the Countess”, where then centuries-old trees were cut down to make room for the carousel (yes, we were in the Middle Ages…).
So that’s how Gherarda and Adelardo met again and since then on they used to flirt over and over right in that place, which was indeed the ideal setting for an ideal young adolescents’ romantic love story.
Then actually this love story did not have the sequel that everyone could expect.
Gherarda married some offspring from the Orsini’s of Pitigliano because so was decided, for political convenience, by the two illustrious families. An arranged marriage, which resulted in the opening of a convent’s doors for the young Adelardo, about whom nothing more was known.
That field born out of love, Prato della Contessa, is all that’s been left of the ancient romance, and later on it still became scenery to sweet and suggestive stories.
