They call chestnut flour "neccio flour" in Garfagnana, in the province of Lucca (Tuscany). Chestnut flour is nowadays used almost exclusively to prepare sweets and pastries. But for many centuries it was considered a staple food in the rural areas of Garfagnana and, in some cases, it even substituted cereals. 
       Chestnuts and chestnut flour were so important in this region's rural economy that in the town of Barga, in 1360, the picking and exportation of chestnuts was controlled by strict laws. Town administrators went so far as to tax neccio flour. Later, in 1489, the city of Lucca saw it fit to pass special regulations to protect the city's chestnut groves and its production of neccio flour. 
       Neccio flour today still plays an important role in the culinary traditions of Garfagnana: chestnut flour polenta, manafregoli (neccio flour cooked in milk), castagnaccio (a kind of a pizza made with chestnut flour and dressed with olive oil, walnuts and pine kernels), and the typical bread of Garfagnana (also called neccio) are some of the many delicious specialties of this wooded corner of northern Tuscany.   

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