Special guests: Il Fontanaro in Umbria...
"I am reluctant to write this review because in all honesty, I don't want to share the charm, solitude and magnificent vistas of this place that my wife and I have come to adore and thirst for. Call me selfish. The experience that is Il Fontanaro is, and will always be, at the top of our list and we've been all over Italy. From Lake Como to Sicily this place is without peer. The warmth of the property and surrounding village, the hospitality of our hosts/Owners Alina and Lucia Pinelli, and the relaxed pace of living are everything that you could wish for. This is our second trip here having experienced the cooking class on a day trip from Rome first prompting our desire to return for an extended stay, and what a stay it was. Suffice it to say that we can't get back here fast enough. To borrow a line from a Bradley Cooper movie..."Don't ever change, for anybody"
These are not my words, this is a review of one of the visitors to the estate of Il Fontanaro. I myself was not in Il Fontanaro, so I cannot confirm or refute the words of a culinary school student. Fontanaro has its own wine, but Fontanaro’s specialty is a culinary school and olive oil production.
Il Fontanaro is an Organic Olive and Grape farm, Villas, Olive Oil Slow Food Presidium and Culinary school
There are few places where you can find serenity, explore medieval hill towns, Etruscan art, and historic cities, and enjoy great food and extraordinarily welcoming hosts. Fontanaro offers all that and much more. The Country slow Living estate has five luxury locations, and can accommodate to more than 50 persons. All have AC, WIFI and infinity swimming pools. They are: Fontanaro, Tartagli, Fontegirasole, Fonte della Pace and Fonte Cicerum.
The main Fontanaro estate was built in 1893 and contains a beautifully restored two story stone farmhouse with two separate luxury homes. Located in Umbria, the green heart of Italy on the border of Tuscany, the property is set on 40 acres with 3.000 olive trees and a small vineyard.
The view lends itself to rolling green hills facing breathtaking sunsets and sunrise like a Perugino’s painting. There is a bread oven, a Weber barbecue and a large private Infinity swimming pool with high-performance salt chlorinator (14 x 6m) with a maxi Jacuzzi.
2018 Gold Medal Awards, New York (please look at the link)
2018 Gold Medal Awards, london (please look at the link)
" Our oil is the result of a production of top quality olive groves not comparable to any kind of industrial production.
Plants from which we extract Fontanaro olive oil are grown on sunny slopes, far from factories and traffic congested roads, in an unpolluted natural environment.
We recycle all the garbage and we don’t use any chemicals.
We return the residues of the oil processing as natural fertilizer to the soil.
Our oil has a very fruity taste with bitter and spicy notes and is very rich of unique flavors. In our own mill, the cold press process is applied within 6 hours of the olive picking to guarantee the very best quality oil."
Alina Pinelli
Sergey Evtuhov, author of the project "Yellow Road"
