Villa Campestri Olive Oil Resort is closing down for the season – We look forward to seeing you in 2013!
The moment has arrived for Villa Campestri Olive Oil Resort to close. It’s a time for us to recharge our batteries to renew our energies for an even better season next year. To reminisce a little, we interviewed Gemma Pasquali, to uncover her most outstanding memories of 2012, and to tell us a bit about activities at the Villa, to capture the beauty of its nature, as well as the tastes emerging from its kitchen and the amazing success of the innovative OliveToLive and the weeks of AmorOlio.
As happens every year, Villa Campestri is shutting its doors for the winter. It’s for a simple reason: to reenergize for next year, hopefully to make 2013 an even better season for our guests. We had a wonderfully successful year, and hope to make next year even better.
2012 was a year of great satisfaction, for us and for our guests. We had three sessions of AmorOlio (you can find on our Facebook Photo Gallery page some memorable moments with our guests at Food52, whom we thank again for their readiness and enthusiasm); the gathering and pressing of the olives (also reported on our Facebook page); the presentation of the project OliveToLive, conceived and created by owner Paolo Pasquali; the exquisite dinners in our restaurant, L’Olivaia, together with Chef Zanieri and the special Olive Oil Dinner; the relaxing sessions with SPO (Salus pro Oleum); the excursions in our park and to nearby Vicchio di Mugello. And, above all, we listened to the beautiful stories of our guests who brought us such pleasure with their presence.
Here’s how Gemma Pasquali, owner of the Villa Campestri together with her father Paolo and sister Viola, recalls the highlights of 2012:
Gemma, tell us your best moment of 2012 at the Villa Campestri Olive Oil Resort…
I have so many beautiful moments, but perhaps the most stunning was after a summer thunderstorm, when a perfect rainbow appeared and all our guests poured out onto the terrace to watch.
This year, there were three different editions of the AmorOlio week. Why do you think people are so appreciative of this kind of initiative, and why is AmorOlio so important a part of Villa Campestri?
At this moment in our modern age, we tend to forget so much of our strong identity with certain culinary traditions, and alas, the importance of olive oil is one of them. We know everything there is to know about wines and their varieties, but when it comes to oil, very often we can’t tell the difference between a great olive oil and a defective one. AmorOlio is a workshop to immerse yourself firsthand in a spectacular part of Italian gastronomic tradition. It’s to learn what makes a great olive oil, to taste different oils, and be able to discern between a great oil and a defective one.
What happens at Campestri during the time it’s closed?
We use the time to restore, to re-paint, to renovate, and to take a moment to work out new ideas for the Villa, and for our internet site.
Stay in touch with us! Our website and our social networking page don’t take vacation at all!
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