Our history - Hour history
From "Sorpasso" to today
"No, I haven't always been like this; a simple parking lot.
"I too was a hill: I descended, covered in thick Mediterranean flora, all the way to the Aurelia."
Then when the city of Livorno began to expand, the construction of houses and palaces increased, they discovered that under the flora and the little soil, there was "Pietra Serena", the best, the least friable, the most suitable for building strong walls; and then it was my downfall!
They began to dig until, month after month, year after year, they created this void that is now used, thank goodness, for parking."
The "Canaccini" Quarrymen
The quarrymen employed by the "Canaccini" company that managed the quarry, walked down every day along paths from Montenero and Castellaccio.
They arrived early in the morning and began their work in pairs, one holding a special perforated chisel that initially weighed 50g, the other hitting the chisel with a seventeen-kilo hammer.
Once the hole was started, another longer chisel was inserted and so on until one of three or four metres was inserted.
They worked and sweated like this for hours and hours, until the hole in the rock was at least three meters deep.
At this point the dynamite and other things were inserted, then the fuse and we prepared to detonate the mines.
Traffic on the Aurelia was stopped; it wasn't as heavy as it is today; a worker from the north and one from the south with a red flag would stop it, and then, after detonating the mines and clearing the road of any rocks, they would reopen it.
At 12:30 we went to eat; a simple meal: soup, tomatoes, and something else when available; but always accompanied by a good glass of wine!
Lunch took place in a small house, the future current restaurant, across the road, on the sea side.
It was used to store tools, to rest from the rain and the cold and from the sun during the summer.
A small house that was supposed to have a future, in fact it is the oldest part of the current restaurant.
After lunch, the quarrymen returned to work and, to rest, so to speak, with their seventeen-kilo hammers, they broke into smaller pieces the large boulders that the mines had caused to fall from the mountain so that they could be used by the bricklayers to build the future buildings of Livorno in the city with lime and solid red bricks.
Only towards evening did the work cease and some of the quarrymen went down to the sea to swim, but also to fish for some mullet or some white sea bream that would be used for their families' dinner, using small bombs prepared with some dynamite stolen that morning.
Sometimes during this operation someone was injured by premature explosions when lighting the fuse.
The quarrymen's heavy work wasn't the only one along the coast; on the Aurelia road, atop a pile of stones sat the "stonebreaker," whose fingers were bound with leather and tied with string. Neri Tanfucio (Renato Fucini) also mentions him in a short story. In his other hand, he held a sturdy hammer, which he used to split the large stones into gravel, which was then scattered on the road to keep it in good working order.
There was also another group of Pietra Serena workers, more specialized and better paid: "The Stonemasons".
They came mainly from Antignano and went to work in a square below the Sassoscritto, still visible, from which they used chisels and wedges to tear out stone slabs that were then used to pave the streets or as kerbs for the sidewalks.
The slabs and kerbs were then loaded onto ships – the remains of the pier can still be seen – and they reached the port of Livorno by sea.
It all ended, because of progress and precisely because of the automobile and the trucks that had replaced carts and carriages.
But what do cars and trucks have to do with it?
Due to the increase in traffic, ANAS no longer allowed the road to be closed when the mines detonated, either at 12:00 or 17:00. And so the work ended...
All the quarries along the coast, including the Sonnino quarries adjacent to Sassoscritto and the Ghezzani quarries in Calafuria, were forced to cease operations; only the small house by the road, overlooking the coast, remained.
The property was then enlarged and transformed into a summer holiday villa and a swimming pool until 1940.
During the war from 1941 to 1945 the villa became a home after Livorno began to suffer the bombings, it was necessary to escape from the center.
From there, safely, the bombers coming from the sea were spotted and preparing to bomb the city.
Then the war ended and with it the bombings and for the Sassoscritto house a new life began, one that still continues to this day, more attractive than the previous one.
It happened like this: once they left the Sassoscritto house to return to Livorno, the owners were informed that during the night, tiles and roof tiles were being stolen from the roof by some Livorno residents, who, having found their house with the roof damaged by the bombing, had decided to take action accordingly.
It was then that a lady, "Cisa", showed up and offered to rent the house to sell drinks and sandwiches to passers-by, and so Sassoscritto became a restaurant, making the lady's fortune. Leaving aside the nastiness, it seems she granted the use of some rooms to a few privileged customers.
The enterprising "Cisa", seeing that business was going well, in agreement with the owner, had a terrace built on wooden stilts at the back of the house, overlooking the sea, where lunches and dinners were served.
Business went on and on until 1964, when Mrs. Cisa introduced Mr. Franceschi to the owner:
Annunziata, her husband Paris Collodi and her son-in-law Mr. Bruno Taddei with his wife Flora Collodi.
From that moment began the adventure of the Taddei Collodi family in 1964......
Over time, the premises have been expanded, the wooden terrace enlarged and replaced with a reinforced concrete one.
After years of sacrifice, business began to take off, and in 1985 Bruno Taddei decided to involve his brothers Sergio and Luciano in his adventure, forming the company Sassoscritto together with their respective families. This company managed the business until May 2022, when the young entrepreneur Roberto Capenti took over the company for a new venture.
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