We have really enjoyed our few days here in Italy. The lovely old village of Tolfa has around 4,700 residents, but is very quiet and oh so picturesque. You can see by the narrow cobblestone streets and walkways that most of the people walk everywhere, which is very good exercise as it is so hilly. Today we went for a walk to see an old farm machine, which is on the grounds of the convent. Then we just walked around admiring the streets and the old buildings.
A town of medieval origin in the orbit of Viterbo, it was assumed into the Papal States and granted first to the Capocci family, and then to the Roman nobles Ludovico and Pietro Frangipani who walled the community. Tolfa achieved sudden importance following the discovery there in 1461 of large deposits of alunite, the source of alum, with the result that direct control was assumed, after some confrontations with the Frangipani, by the Camera Apostolica. Alum was an essential mordant in the textile industry, which was central to the Late Medieval and Early Modern Italian economy. Previously, the only supplies of alum were imported from the East, from sources controlled by the Ottoman Turks, through Venice, which profited greatly. Suddenly, the monopoly of alum shifted to the Papacy, which controlled Tolfa; Pope Pius II placed its distribution solely in the hands of the Medici, with the explicit thought that the income from this monopoly should be devoted to the Christian res publica as the infidel Turk, elated by his victories, threatened to devour Christendom.[4]Later, the monopoly in extraction of alum at Tolfa passed as a papal gift to Agostino Chigi.
In 1530, Pope Clement VII granted the status of comune to Tolfa, which had outgrown its medieval walls. In later times, Tolfa continued to be supported by the extraction of alum. Near the mine, the workmen's village of Allumiere was built; it became an autonomous comune in 1826.
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