ANTICA OSTERIA PACE, LOMBARDY

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The ‘Antica Osteria Pace’ is located in one of the historic buildings of the village of ‘Persone’, an ancient pre-Roman and Celtic village, part of the impressive landscape of the ‘Val Vestino’, which includes one of the most important Wilderness areas of Italy.

The ‘Osteria’ project develops within the family context to devote themselves to the preservation and dissemination of local culinary and agricultural traditions to appreciate the natural beauty of the area and the authenticity of the place.

The kitchen is an important place: the famous ‘casoncelli’ are prepared by the mother Marisa using traditional recipes. The products are carefully selected from local producers: primarily milk, cheese and eggs. The meat dishes, as part of a local greatly appreciated tradition, consist largely of local wild game in accordance with the laws of environmental protection.

Even the guests’ rooms are furnished with the simplicity typical of mountain homes, but comfortable and cozy, suitable for families and groups.

The family-run company, the small size of the village of ‘Persone’, the opportunity to drop off the car for walking along the many trails through the valley make the stay particularly appreciated for those who want to soak up a non-exotic but equally surprising nature, still rich in its original and untouched uniqueness.

SIRIGNANO WINE RESORT, SICILY

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The ‘Sirignano Wine Resort’ farm holidays is located in the Belice Valley, in the heart of the estate of the family of the De Gregorio Marquises. 

It takes its name after the ancient ‘Baglio’ of Sirignano (belonging to the family since 1730), a typical building of feudal Sicily which consisted of a farm with a large courtyard inhabited by the landowners and by the peasants who worked on it.

This place was once a village, with the main house, the school, the church and the houses of the peasants. Following the terrible earthquake of 1968, the land was abandoned, only the Carabinieri barrack survived, continuing to control the Marquises’ estates until 1978.

In this fertile environment, the De Gregorio family cultivates vines and olive trees, today who is running the company is Massimo, he follows with care and discipline the entire production chain, thanks to him since 2000 the company has been 100% organic certified.

Buttonhole is the historic Wine Cellar realized in the second half of the 800s: it is located in the basement of the building and enjoys climatic conditions of perfect thermal insulation all year round, due to the ancient woodland that surrounds it and to its exposure to North: it is here that the DOC and IGT wines of the De Gregorio Marquises are produced.

Since some years it is also possible to overnight: simple, but elegant, the’ Sirignano Wine Resort’ offers comfort and relax in comfortable rooms and a fine cuisine offered in the restaurant.

FATTORIA DI MAIANO, FIESOLE (FI), TUSCANY

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The Maiano farm is, by the will of the property, a high environmental vocation company. An example is the extensive reforestation with cypress and oak trees to convert areas of sandstone quarries from which the whole area of Florence from the Middle Ages until the beginning of 900’s emerged.

In 1991 the farm and all its productions have been ORGANIC certified, from the extra virgin olive oil to zootechnics. Farmers for over 800 years, the family spirit has always been marked by the exploitation of human labor and environmental quality.

This has allowed us to be one of the benchmarks for the innovation of the agricultural, tourist and environmental product, adding value to the survival of the beautiful hills between Fiesole and Settignano, overlooking Florence. The Extra Virgin BIO Olive Oil is made with special care in our mill by squeezing ONLY olives produced from the 20,000 farm plants.

Tourist, educational and sport proposals revolve around this activity. Rooms and apartments stays, rooms for receptions, conferences, business meetings, restaurant. An educational farm for school  and family visits, with animals and forest paths, mountain bike trails, bike-park and Nordic walking, adventure park, orienteering. 

Off road night tours discovering wildlife. Activities involve all members of the family (3 generations), sports clubs, environmental guides, hotels, schools, universities, associations.

Customers from the cities and from all over the world seek us, buy our products and come back. The LAUDEMIO oil is shipped directly to customers’ home around the world. Guests of the apartments, the newlyweds find here a village to gather family and friends.

For us the future is a daily and constant improvement of the client satisfaction and of the quality of our products. The future will be a network of ideas, proposals, innovations and marketing.

TAPPETI DI ARMUNGIA CASA LUSSU

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Armungia is a small village on the highlands of  Gerrei, in the south-east of Sardinia. “Casa Lussu” is a hand weaving housework; here it is possible to attend activities and workshops about organic dyeing of wool yarns and weaving,  as well as to be accommodated.

In our workshop we knead Sardinian sheep wool, that sometime we enjoy dyeing by ourselves at home,  with plants and fruits from natural flora of our territory (walnut, pomegranate, elderberry, fig leaves, an so on). Traditional weaving is realised on horizontal wood looms, using the so called “a litzos” or “launched weaves” technique. 

Laying the warp is a hand made traditional work and it is realized alongside Casa Lussu’ courtyard walls. This weaving technique creates geometric patterns whose matrix is outlined during the loom fitting. The result is a “rose” or “lemon leaf” or “broom” or other motifs that are so called on the basis of the images that resemble the real ones.  

The warp threads pass through a system of heddle eyes that are connected to some pedals which produce different interweaving. Weave sequences can be combined in order to create different geometric design.

In this way, each fabric becomes a unique piece of work, thanks to the assortment of motifs and to the variety of weave yarn: wool, linen, cotton of every kind of thickness and coloration. Nowadays this kind of weaving is not too much common in Sardinia, so our work come from the recovery of the traditional motifs with a perspective that we call of “dynamic conservation”: i.e. we maintain techniques, wood looms and design patterns but we experiment different sizes and combination of colors.

Until the 60s, weaving teaching was handed down orally. In Armungia some weavers began to schematize these designs on paper. These pattern have been handed down from our grandmother Giovanna to us, in order to avoid the risk that all this cultural heritage could be forever lost.

  

TURISMO RURALE LE GRAZIE

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About fifteen years ago, my wife and I decided to buy a land with two crumbling rural buildings on the top of a hill overlooking the village, from where you can enjoy an enchanting view on the mountains and the valley.

With great efforts and several loans we began the restoration and the enlargement of the existing building, using only local materials, stone, wood, etc.. everything to offer to prospective guests a peasant, biological and ecological living in a simple (but natural)  structure.

The farm is located in the area 1 (full buffer zone) of the Cilento National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage (UNESCO 1998) MAB Reserve (Man and Biosphere 1997) GEOPARK (2010) in between the Cilento coast and the “Vallo di Diano”, and it is strategically close to the most fascinating places of historical and landscape interest in the Cilento: Mount Cervati – Gorges of Heat – Old Roscigno - Padula’s Charterhouse- Paestum and Velia.

The rooms are all equipped with private bathroom, furnished with authentic antique furniture, free WiFi, satellite and terrestrial TV, courtesy eco set. On the table there’s plenty of Cilento specialties, homemade bread and pasta, vegetables from the garden, lamb, goat, cheese, salami, cooked in several delicious recipes in the respect of the original and now revalued Mediterranean Diet.

Silence, quiet, ease, cozy ambience make of the “LE GRAZIE" a ideal place for a relaxing holiday and an excellent starting point for many exciting itineraries in the area.

We have recently been rewarded by ‘Legambiente’, an Italian NGO recognized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs engaged in the environment development, and the National Park of Cilento for, we cite, "to distinguish themselves and have characterized their history and activities, in the respect of the environment protection, using energy from renewable sources and placing emphasis on energy saving ....... . Preferring the production and purchase of Km 0 organic products and supplies. "

C + Ͻ , CAGLIARI, SARDINIA

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Our Laboratory  located in Cagliari (in Sardinia), in the historical Villanova area, is where we design and create our hand made bags, and where we continue to experiment and evolve our ideas for our designs and the materials we use.

We are committed to safeguarding the rich Sardinian tradition of textile making - still in practice in
Samugheo, a small village in the middle of the island - but our concept is to reinterpret the traditional into design led pieces combining ancient wisdom and contemporary aesthetics.

All our bags are individually handmade using mostly a variety of different wool fabrics, all originating from Sardinian sheep and crafted according to local traditions, (which we alternate with velvets, wool/cotton blends and linens according to the season), with an added modern twist, weaving together traditional textiles with today's materials.

Inspired by the island of Sardinia, our color palette ranges from shades of black, grey, brown and cream for our Winter collections, to a freer, softer look for Summer, muting from white to grey with the occasional dash of vibrant color in total contrast.

Influenced by the Sardinian landscape, the color palette is black, black with white, grey and chocolate brown.

in soft shades of white, cream and grey, with the occasional dash of strong color.

ALESSANDRA FLORIS BASKET WEAVER, SINNAI (CA), SARDINIA

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Ciao, I am Alessandra Floris from Sinnai, in Sardinia, and I have been a basket weaver since 1994.
Although I come from a family of embroideries, I became fascinated by waving after attending a local workshop and decided that I had found my calling, despite the difficulties I knew I would encounter.
For starters, there was nobody growing the right wheat.

For basket weaving, you need a particular type of wheat, called  "Grano Capelli", which has a longer, stronger stem and a smaller flower head (and less seeds, which is ideal for weavers) but it also has to be grown on ground that is protected from strong winds, which could damage it: so nobody wanted to plant it anymore.

Eventually, together with one of the teachers from the workshop, I set out to grow my own, and to arrange for the gathering of the rush, the other main material for weaving baskets, which grows wild alongside rivers and streams.
Fortunately, along the way, we made a wonderful discovery: the Grano Capelli makes excellent bread, which is another incentive to grow it!



It takes about one and a half months for the materials to be ready to be woven and each basket is individually hand decorated with drawings, inspired by local traditions or sometimes just images from magazines that we reinterpret.

We use predominantly red and black in our designs, with red representing joy and celebrations and black associated with sadness.
In past times, you would have your best basket, "Su Strexu Bonu", which was part of a girl's dowry and used only on special occasions, and the everyday version, "De Maniggiu".

It takes at least 7 hours to make a basket, and most people who chose to buy them now are private clients.
Although I can say that I have made baskets in every possible shape and size following our village's weaving tradition, I am now breaking from the past and enjoying experimenting in creating other forms and shapes, anything from clocks to mirror frames, chandeliers and lampshades, even hair clips and earrings.

I also run short courses and workshops, in the winter months, for those if you who might want to learn something about the traditions and crafts of Sinnai, my village.