Il Fuggiasco (The Fugitive), Le 7 Mandate (7 Turns of the Lock), Quarto di Luna (a Touch of Madness) may seem rather odd names for wines until you learn that they are produced by the Casa Circondariale (the Prison) of Velletri, in the Castelli Romani near Rome. Organized into a farming cooperative called Cooperativa Lazzaria, a group of the penitentiary inmates have been successfully producing wine, olive oil and market garden products for the past fifteen years. The initiative was the brainchild of agronomist Rodolfo Craia, who was posted to the prison after a working spell closing down the former penal colony on the Tuscan Island of Pianosa. He was distressed to see the once flourishing vineyards and vegetable gardens, which the convicts had cultivated with dedication, in a state of total abandon. Arriving in the Velletri prison, he found the ideal environment to try out what was at the time considered a daring experiment. The penitentiary was situated in the middle of open countryside, surrounded by fields and had a large empty space between its various buildings. To clinch the idea, he could count on the expertise of one of the inmates, an enologist and wine producer who was serving time for tax evasion and other offences. The wines are now marketed in local supermarkets under the generic labels of Bianco di Lazzaria and Rosso di Lazzari, wile the once empty inner courtyard has been transformed into a flourishing vegetable garden. This year the Cooperative has added mushrooms to its list of productions.
