Agriturismo "La Pievuccia"

            IH: On Wednesday, the 4th of June, we visited the La Pievuccia Agriturismo to learn how these certain individuals prepare their many crops and to try out their prized wine! I believe that at La Pievuccia I had some of the best wine I've ever tasted and perhaps its because of the tour of the garden we got before the wine tasting. Everything they do when cultivating their plants is all very natural and good for the environment. I learned how they prepared the compost for the plants to fertilize and how it is used as a natural pesticide. The picture above shows Riccardo, our guide and owner of La Pievuccia, holding up a handful of compost explaining why this dirt was so warm compared to other piles of dirt! He told us that to cook compost they needed to put it all in a pile or multiple piles and let it sit for a certain amount of time. Then when it was hot they would flip the compost upside down and have it cook from the other side! It was really a fascinating process that I had no idea existed. This is obviously an older way of doing things in the past but this method is still practiced today all around Italy and is still a very good way of keeping things green. I love visiting places like this because we get first hand experiences from people whose families have cultivated these lands for centuries and knowledge that we would never have received if it wasn't for the great people of Santa Chiara!