Hello!
Today we are just beyond the center of Torre Pellice, in a small village called Chabriols; there’s a funny story which took place here that I want to tell you!
You have to know that once, in a beautiful meadow in this area, a huge oak had grown.
When it came to the cold season, all of the crows from surrounding woods used to move down to lower latitudes in order to suffer less from cold, and they all used to come to eat the giant acorns produced by the oak.
Through the years the number of crows increased more and more, so much that, at a certain point, the oak could not be seen any more, because of the large amount of crows perched on the branches of the tree.
You can’t even imagine how furious the owner of the oak was about that! He needed the acorns to feed his animals in winter time, but he could not collect any of them because of the crows! …what would his animals eat during the winter?
One day a neighbor of him knocked at his door, offering to solve the situation; the farmer was so exasperated that he immediately accepted, without even asking how he would get to the bottom of the matter.
The neighbor went to the meadow where the oak was, he drove the ravens away and he covered the big tree with tar (a black, waterproof and gluey material), then he moved away and waited for the crows to come back to lie on the branches. It did not take long before the greedy birds came to roost on the tree…
As soon as the last raven perched on the oak, the neighbor started to make a big noise using a machine gun loaded with blanks. The crows, frightened by that big noise, tried to fly away, but the tar kept them glued to the tree!
Believe it or not, there were so many birds that all of a sudden the tree slowly began to uproot…
Shortly after the crows flew away, bringing with them, stuck to their paws, the farmer’s tree!
If you ever come round here for a walk one day, take a look in the fields: some say you can still see the hole where the roots of the oak were!
How to get here:
go along Provincial Road 161 that goes from Pinerolo to Pellice Valley, passing the town of Torre Pellice. After about 2,5 km you will reach the entrance to the hamlet of Chabriols Inferior.
Do you want to read the tale in Italian ?