The Daylight World of Brian

Casa rossa Ximenes (Ximenes Red House), Toscana (Tuscany), Italy

This “Casa” (House) is actually a sluice gate, built in 1765 by Leonardo Ximenes, a Sicilian engineer, in charge of the reclamation of the surrounding swampy area (Maremma, southern Tuscany) by the Grand Duke, that ruled Tuscany at that time. The building holds a reclamation museum and it’s a starting point for guided tours to the near natural park.

Note: Ximenes is obviously a surname of Spanish origin: in fact, the Kingdom of Spain ruled Southern Italy, Sicily included, from 1559 to 1713. Lots of Spanish people (soldiers, administrators, settlers) moved to this area during the domination and several of them remained there even afterwards. Anyway, as far as I know, there are no traces of Spanish traditions of Spanish language in local dialects.