The Sandri represented for a long time one of the most important and reference families of Rocchetta from which it takes its full name: Rocchetta Sandri.
Grandfather Domenico and the 1855 epidemic
My grandfather Domenico was born in the locality "Cerro" in 1855, at the time of Don Rotilio and when the medieval defence fortress and the "Trabucco" still existed at Cerro — a hidden pit where bad people were made to fall and be killed (this is what they told me as a child to keep me good).
That year, 1855, was disastrous for the people of Rocchetta because of the Cholera epidemic that decimated much of the population. My grandfather was the youngest of a large family: his brothers all fell ill and died. The mother, in order to save the only child she had left, took him to Rovina Lunga, below Gaiato, hid him under a juniper and on foot, several times a day, from Rocchetta she went to breastfeed him. It was only thanks to this enormous sacrifice that my grandfather survived.
The Casa Nuova and the expansion of the farm
When he grew up he married and had many children, 5 boys and 2 girls. In order to guarantee the subsistence of his large family he sold Cerro and bought a much larger farm, "La Casa Nuova", where some descendants still live today.
The size of the farm and the presence of chestnut groves was very important for the economy of the time, since the fields yielded little and the main food was chestnuts: i balot, the peeled ones, dried chestnuts, chestnut flour.
A family of farmers
In that era having many children was a wealth both because many arms were needed to work, and because once married, the dowries brought by the wives were added to the family lands. Thanks to this the Casa Nuova farm expanded and came to measure over 100 hectares, a lot for the time.
The descendants of this important family of farmers continue to this day to be very attached to their land which they still cultivate.