The places associated with Maria Maltoni, the teacher who revolutionized teaching in the Florentine countryside
In post-World War II Tuscany came the most interesting educational experiences of the 20ᵗʰ century and the school of Maria Maltoni is one of them.
The context is strongly rural, with San Gersolè located in the Impruneta countryside, south of Florence. Maestra Maltoni, who was born and educated in Romagna, devoted herself to teaching children in a small country school in San Gersolè, in the town of Impruneta, from 1920 to 1956. Unconvinced by traditional teaching, cast in a barely schooled and poor context, she introduced a focus on diary writing and the use of drawing, as tools to make pupils the protagonists of their own educational journey.
A journey of discovery focused on Maria Maltoni’s teaching experience begins with a visit to the Municipal Library of Impruneta in Piazza Buondelmonti, where the Maltoni Fund safeguards a collection of material created by the pupils and selected by the teacher herself, along with many of her writings.
The Fund consists of an impressive number of drawings, created by the children during her extensive years of teaching. There are about 1,600 notebooks and some 600 copies of the San Gersolè Newspaper, written directly by the young pupils, with weekly issues. Also present in the Fund are photographs selected by Maria Maltoni.
Other documents are retained in the INDIRE historical archives in Florence.
A journey of discovery focused on Maria Maltoni’s teaching experience begins with a visit to the Municipal Library of Impruneta in Piazza Buondelmonti, where the Maltoni Fund safeguards a collection of material created by the pupils and selected by the teacher herself, along with many of her writings.
The Fund consists of an impressive number of drawings, created by the children during her extensive years of teaching. There are about 1,600 notebooks and some 600 copies of the San Gersolè Newspaper, written directly by the young pupils, with weekly issues. Also present in the Fund are photographs selected by Maria Maltoni.
Other documents are retained in the INDIRE historical archives in Florence.
Driving along the Via Imprunetana provincial road to Pozzolatico, travelling the 3 miles/5 kilometers that separates Piazza Buondelmonti from the hamlet of San Gersolé, you cross what was the natural environment of the San Gersolé schoolchildren: a rural space characterized by terraced agricultural areas but overall, a beautiful agricultural landscape dominated by olive groves and vineyards.
After traversing the hamlet of Mezzomonte, where the imposing Villa Corsini is located, turn right following the signs for Grassina and San Gersolè. Go past the Torre Rossa estate and you reach the delightful country village of San Gersolè, offering a splendid view of Florence and the Ema River valley. Beyond the Church of San Pietro in Jerusalem on the left, along the road that then leads to Grassina, is the new Maria Maltoni Preschool, a building with two sections still in use to this day thanks to recent renovations.
On the right, several feet from the preschool, is the building housing Maestra Maltoni’s classroom in the old school, which cannot be visited inside but can be clearly identified by the stone memorial plaque on the façade.
Maestra Maltoni’s teaching method was based entirely on objectivity, with a process of reworking the living environment based on the actual experience of the children, then expressed in diaries and drawings, accompanied by precise notes in such a way as to form logic and make nature known after the necessary observation of actual events, and not through trickle-down norms.
From an extremely peripheral place, the “Maltoni Method” managed to attract the interest of great intellectuals such as Francesco Bettini, Giuseppe Lombardo Radice, Giovanni Michelucci, Piero Calamandrei and Italo Calvino.
Driving along the Via Imprunetana provincial road to Pozzolatico, travelling the 3 miles/5 kilometers that separates Piazza Buondelmonti from the hamlet of San Gersolé, you cross what was the natural environment of the San Gersolé schoolchildren: a rural space characterized by terraced agricultural areas but overall, a beautiful agricultural landscape dominated by olive groves and vineyards.
After traversing the hamlet of Mezzomonte, where the imposing Villa Corsini is located, turn right following the signs for Grassina and San Gersolè. Go past the Torre Rossa estate and you reach the delightful country village of San Gersolè, offering a splendid view of Florence and the Ema River valley. Beyond the Church of San Pietro in Jerusalem on the left, along the road that then leads to Grassina, is the new Maria Maltoni Preschool, a building with two sections still in use to this day thanks to recent renovations.
On the right, several feet from the preschool, is the building housing Maestra Maltoni’s classroom in the old school, which cannot be visited inside but can be clearly identified by the stone memorial plaque on the façade.
Maestra Maltoni’s teaching method was based entirely on objectivity, with a process of reworking the living environment based on the actual experience of the children, then expressed in diaries and drawings, accompanied by precise notes in such a way as to form logic and make nature known after the necessary observation of actual events, and not through trickle-down norms.
From an extremely peripheral place, the “Maltoni Method” managed to attract the interest of great intellectuals such as Francesco Bettini, Giuseppe Lombardo Radice, Giovanni Michelucci, Piero Calamandrei and Italo Calvino.
Still in the village, mention must be made of the petite Church of San Pietro in Jerusalem with ancient origins. The first mention is found in a Bull of Pope Adrian IV dated November 29, 1156, confirming the parish priest of Santa Maria in Pineta, later an Eclessia de Sant’Irsoleo, mentioned in 1204 as an outpost for the Vallombrosian monks.
Only a few traces of the original construction remain, found in the façade and southern flank. Along the northern flank, a cloister was originally to be built, accessed through a portal that was enlarged in recent times.
The single-nave interior features a wooden truss roof. The works of art preserved here are a 17ᵗʰ-century canvas depicting the Madonna and Child, and a panel painting, also from the 17ᵗʰ century, with the Miracle of Saint Peter.
It is worth completing the itinerary with a visit to the small San Gersolè Cemetery, also in the vicinity of the church, where there is the grave of Maestra Maria Maltoni that was restored in 2014, 50 years after her death and financed by the alumni of San Gersolè, demonstrating their great affection for their teacher.
Still in the village, mention must be made of the petite Church of San Pietro in Jerusalem with ancient origins. The first mention is found in a Bull of Pope Adrian IV dated November 29, 1156, confirming the parish priest of Santa Maria in Pineta, later an Eclessia de Sant’Irsoleo, mentioned in 1204 as an outpost for the Vallombrosian monks.
Only a few traces of the original construction remain, found in the façade and southern flank. Along the northern flank, a cloister was originally to be built, accessed through a portal that was enlarged in recent times.
The single-nave interior features a wooden truss roof. The works of art preserved here are a 17ᵗʰ-century canvas depicting the Madonna and Child, and a panel painting, also from the 17ᵗʰ century, with the Miracle of Saint Peter.
It is worth completing the itinerary with a visit to the small San Gersolè Cemetery, also in the vicinity of the church, where there is the grave of Maestra Maria Maltoni that was restored in 2014, 50 years after her death and financed by the alumni of San Gersolè, demonstrating their great affection for their teacher.
Still in the village, mention must be made of the petite Church of San Pietro in Jerusalem with ancient origins. The first mention is found in a Bull of Pope Adrian IV dated November 29, 1156, confirming the parish priest of Santa Maria in Pineta, later an Eclessia de Sant’Irsoleo, mentioned in 1204 as an outpost for the Vallombrosian monks.
Only a few traces of the original construction remain, found in the façade and southern flank. Along the northern flank, a cloister was originally to be built, accessed through a portal that was enlarged in recent times.
The single-nave interior features a wooden truss roof. The works of art preserved here are a 17ᵗʰ-century canvas depicting the Madonna and Child, and a panel painting, also from the 17ᵗʰ century, with the Miracle of Saint Peter.
It is worth completing the itinerary with a visit to the small San Gersolè Cemetery, also in the vicinity of the church, where there is the grave of Maestra Maria Maltoni that was restored in 2014, 50 years after her death and financed by the alumni of San Gersolè, demonstrating their great affection for their teacher.
In 2024, the publishing house Florence Art Edition published a volume titled Maria Maltoni and the School of San Gersolè. An extraordinary educational experience by Laura Socci and Silvia Tozzi.