A fascinating experience to discover an ancient remedy from Tuscan and Certaldo tradition, used over the centuries to ward off fear and fright.

The Herb of Fear is a wild plant that grew in the countryside around Certaldo and was used in folk medicine for its supposed protective power. During the workshop, students will attend a practical demonstration on preparing the water for ritual washings and will learn the traditional method by which these were performed.

Experience enriched with guided tour

The workshop can be combined with a guided tour inside the Convent of the Augustinians and its evocative underground areas. Here, participants will be transported to another era, experiencing the daily life of the friars marked by prayer, work, study, and assistance to the needy and pilgrims.

In dedicated rooms, students will be able to handle period tools and discover the techniques for preparing remedies used by the friars. The experience is completed with an in-depth look at medieval burials, funeral ceremonies, and the treatments reserved for those who died in unusual circumstances.

Activity Details

• Duration: about 1 hour and 20 minutes
• Target audience: nursery, primary, and lower secondary schools
• Participants: max 25 children – min 20 children
• Costs:
  • Admission to the Convent of the Augustinians + Museum of Sacred Art: €2.00 per student
  • Guided tour of the museum
  • Educational workshop “The Herb of Fear”: €6.00 per student

• Educational material: For schools that request it, illustrative material about the workshop will be sent before the visit.

A fascinating journey into the Middle Ages, between herbalism and rituals, to discover the ancient use of plants, herbs, and stones for healing purposes and in healing rituals.

Students will explore the world of folk medicine, with particular attention to the typical plants of the Tuscan countryside, used for centuries by our grandmothers in home remedies. An immersive experience that combines knowledge and tradition, allowing the rediscovery of ancient practices with a mysterious and fascinating flavor.

Experience enriched with guided tour

The workshop can be combined with a guided tour inside the Convent of the Augustinians and its evocative underground areas. Here, participants will relive the daily life of the friars, marked by prayer, work, study, and assistance to pilgrims.

In specially prepared rooms, students will be able to handle period tools and attend a practical demonstration on the preparation of medieval remedies. The experience is enriched with an in-depth look at ancient burials, funeral ceremonies, and the treatments reserved for those who died in unusual circumstances.

Activity Details

• Duration: about 1 hour and 20 minutes
• Target audience: nursery, primary, and lower secondary schools
• Participants: max 25 children – min 20 children
• Costs:
  • Admission to the Convent of the Augustinians + Museum of Sacred Art: €2.00 per student
  • Guided tour of the museum
  • Educational workshop “Healing Herbs and Stones”: €6.00 per student
• Educational material: For schools that request it, illustrative material about the workshop will be sent before the visit.

With this workshop, we experiment with the knowledge and functions related to imagination—imagination as a path to be educated in, not just a simple innate gift.

Changing color, volume, function, material, space, time—these are some of the functions proposed to invent and imagine a modified reality: transformed objects, fairytale suggestions, paintings.

Cost: €5.50 per child, including a complimentary book for each child.

Duration: 1 hour and 20 minutes

The languages of theatre, such as non-verbal language, verbal language, space, voice, music, costumes.

A simple way to experience the complexity of theatre and its socializing and educational values, using fairy tales as a pretext to “tell” their possible theatrical adaptation. A small taste, a window into this fascinating world.

During the activity, children will be presented with short theatrical pieces interspersed with a dialogue with the young audience, who are sometimes called upon to help the storyteller. A fresh and fun meeting that leaves children with many ideas to take back to school.

Cost: €5.50 per child, including a complimentary book for each child.

Duration: 1 hour and 20 minutes

How can we learn to write a fairy tale or a nursery rhyme? What do some of the symbolic figures in fairy tales mean? What is a rhyme? How do you tell a fairy tale?

In this workshop, the children meet a book author who will offer a series of prompts and games to understand the mechanisms behind writing a fairy tale.

The children watch and are invited to collaborate with the facilitator to invent short fantastic stories and nursery rhymes. Playing with words is a way to involve children in this creative journey.

Cost: €5.50 per child, including a complimentary book for each child.

Duration: 1 hour and 20 minutes

The aim of this workshop is to let children, who have now forgotten the simplicity of playing at home, in the square, and with friends, experience and discover the richness and great variety of games that have always accompanied the harmonious development of the body/mind relationship.

In pedagogy, play presents two dialectical but contrasting aspects: the principle of adaptation and of overcoming reality. Therefore, learning to play is the best technique for becoming well-rounded children!

Alessandro Gigli, author of the book “Scuola Ludens, 150 games for schools and children’s communities,” aims with this workshop to show, tell, and let children play, also revealing the structures of the game and its playful dynamics.

Cost: €5.50 per child, including a complimentary book for each child.

Duration: 1 hour and 20 minutes

The workshop is a continuous alternation between passages narrated from the original text of The Adventures of Pinocchio and explanatory educational insights, always presented in a playful way, that are implied in this story. In this way, you can discover the colors, animals, fears, and many other things present in this masterpiece.

It all begins with quiz games, that is, unusual or extremely simple questions, such as what color was Mangiafuoco’s black beard… black as an ink scribble, which allows you to gradually enter the narrative and its secrets.

Cost: €5.50 per child, including a complimentary book for each child.

Duration: 1 hour and 20 minutes

Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel are the pretext to tell and reveal the secrets, structure, and hidden meanings between the lines and words of these four fairy tales. Popular culture and traditions, storytelling, and the art of the storyteller can be other educational suggestions to develop during the workshop.

A meeting that alternates the theatrical aspect (with its scenic materials) and fun, with moments of text analysis and comparisons with other already known fairy tales.

Cost: €5.50 per child, including a complimentary book for each child.

Duration: 1 hour and 20 minutes

In the evocative medieval village of Certaldo Alto, inside the Convent of the Augustinians, you can immerse yourself in a unique and engaging experience.

For over twenty years, the Cultural Association I Viaggiatori del Tempo has been offering a themed project that combines education, training, and entertainment, allowing participants to actively interact with some of the most famous characters from History, Legend, and Fairy Tales.

Among the proposed paths are Ancient Rome, The Legend of King Arthur, Assault on the Castle, A World of Fairy Tales, The Magical Kingdom of Camelot, and The Enchantment of the Four Seasons, each designed to offer an educational and engaging experience.

Thanks to the professionalism of the actor-educators and the themed costumes provided to participants, the experience comes to life in the indoor and outdoor spaces of the Convent, transforming the village into a truly immersive stage.

Information

For more information, visit the website www.viaggiatorideltempo.it.