1.1 The Years in La Morra

Looking back on those times, Luciano picks up the thread of his story: "In an era when families were often large, mine was small, simple and unpretentious. All its members worked from morning to evening, without respite, to make ends meet. Everything revolved around two people: my father Ottavio, born in La Morra in 1915, who by trade was a carpenter, and my mother, Rosa Corino, also born in La Morra, in 1927. She was a housewife, a role that was then just as important as working in the fields or outside the home".
In the family, Luciano was the firstborn. Then two more brothers would arrive, both male: Bruno, in 1950, destined to become a draughtsman after attending the INAPLI vocational school in Alba San Cassiano. The third-born, Luca, would be born as late as 1967, when Luciano had already reached the age of majority, which at that time was 21 years old.
"I was doing my military service – Luciano recalls – and when I found out that my mother was expecting a third child, the news somewhat disconcerted me. It seemed strange to me that I should have a brother so much younger than me".
But at that time such situations were common and nobody worried about it. At most people would say "it was heaven's will" and everyone would welcome the newcomer gladly. After an initial moment of bewilderment Luciano too reasoned it that way and from that moment he was happy to share a good stretch of his journey with Luca as well.
In La Morra, Ottavio Sandrone – Luciano's father – lived in Borgata Pozzo, not far from the hamlet of the Annunziata. His was an agricultural family, but with little land, partly cultivated as vineyard and partly with other crops. The head of the household, Francesco Sandrone (whom everyone called Cichìn) had married Annunziata Chiari. They had four children, three males (Ottavio, Carlo and Francesco) and one female (Angiolina). Those had been even harder times. Ottavio was born just as the Great War had begun. Partly the war, partly the Spanish flu epidemic, partly family vicissitudes, what little land the family owned had diminished even further. And so Ottavio and his brothers were forced to seek work elsewhere. Ottavio had begun working as a carpenter, Carlo had gone to work in Barge where he drove buses, and Francesco had moved to Savigliano. Angiolina remained, having married one Bartolomeo Oberto, whose family lived in Borgata Pozzo di La Morra and already made wine. The Oberto family was a well-to-do family that even had its own horse-drawn carriage. The Sandrone family did not. They struggled much harder to make ends meet.
"When my father Ottavio came of age – Luciano recalls – he went off to do his military service and participated in the Second World War, serving as a driver in the disastrous Russian campaign. On his return, like many others, he tried to forget and put that terrible period behind him. Many times I tried to get him to tell me about his wartime experiences, but he was rarely persuaded to talk about it. He preferred to forget. My father was a versatile and dynamic person. He could not sit still. He always had to be doing something. In fact, even before going into the military, he had already got his driving licence. In those times it was a rare thing, but he had done everything possible to manage it. And there was a concrete reason: the family of my maternal grandmother – who came from the Valle Maira in the Cuneo area – in Dronero had a small factory that worked iron and produced scythes and other tools for field work. It was the "Falci" factory, which still exists today, even if it has changed ownership. Besides that factory, my grandmother's family also ran the public motor transport and bus line service".
Since in those years at the Sandrone household in La Morra there was not enough work for everyone, Ottavio willingly decided to go and work on the bus lines, first as a conductor and then as a driver. And so, after some apprenticeship, he managed to get his driving licence.
"Think of the coincidences of life: in mid-2021, after quite some time, I met again an acquaintance of mine who dealt in antique objects and old equipment. Without knowing my past, he spoke to me about a fine iron table, made from many off-cuts from scythe manufacturing. So I went to see it and to my great astonishment I realised that that table was made with many waste pieces from the very "Falci" factory. The emotion was immense, but I pretended not to notice and could not resist. So I bought it". From the same Borgata Pozzo, just above the hamlet of the Annunziata di La Morra, came also Luciano's mother, Rosa Corino. Both his mother's family and his father's family lived in the same hamlet, just a few dozen metres apart. And those two young people, even though they had been born twelve years apart, knew each other well. You know how it goes on these occasions: a greeting today and a compliment tomorrow, and within a few years Luciano's father and mother got engaged and then married.
Rosa Corino's family, Luciano's mother's family, would also in time become linked to the world of wine. They had always cultivated the vineyard, but at a certain point they also began to vinify the grapes and make wine. Even today, the descendants of uncle Giovanni Corino, brother of mother Rosa, continue their activity as wine producers.