Sustainable Tourism and High-Quality Production at Traldi Farm

Francesca Boni and Elisabetta Traldi greet their guests at Traldi Farm with an embrace that con­veys the sense of what Italian hos­pi­tal­ity is all about.

Their com­bi­na­tion of styl­ish­ness and atten­tion to detail is made more com­fort­able by sin­cere smiles and an open-hearted atti­tude. This is also reflected by the care that the pair give to their estate in Tuscia where olive trees thrive.

Located on a plateau 300 meters above sea level in the cen­tral Italian region of Lazio, their estate cov­ers about 150 hectares. Roughly 20 per­cent of the land is ded­i­cated to olive groves, mostly Canino, Moraiolo, Frantoio, Leccino, and Pendolino.

“From these plants, my grand­fa­ther Angelo Traldi pro­duced oil for the fam­ily,” Boni said. ​“Then, my mother Elisabetta took the reins of the farm, and, in 2016, I took the ini­tia­tive to cre­ate our brand and pro­duce high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil mak­ing the best use of the vari­eties of our ter­ri­tory.”

The mother-daugh­ter duo soon achieved their goal by cre­at­ing prod­ucts with out­stand­ing sen­so­r­ial pro­files, includ­ing Eximius, a vibrant mono­va­ri­etal of Caninese and Athos, a blend of Caninese, Frantoio, and Moraiolo.

Both brands have earned Traldi Farm a long list of awards over the years at the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

“I believe that results like these can be reached only with a great respect for the plants and the land,” Boni said. ​“Also, con­tin­u­ous mon­i­tor­ing of the grove is nec­es­sary to ensure high stan­dards.”

“I love spend­ing time with my olive trees and tak­ing care of them every day. My grand­fa­ther used to say that if you want results, ​‘you have to tread on the land.’ That means you have to live it,” she added.

The award-win­ning pro­ducer becomes emo­tional when remem­ber­ing the dif­fi­cult route that her grand­fa­ther fol­lowed to put the fam­ily on their path to suc­cess.

“He served dur­ing the Second World War,” Boni recalled. ​“After the con­flict ended, my grand­fa­ther came home, but life was not easy at all. There was mis­ery, and, like many other Italians in that period, he and his fam­ily suf­fered hunger.”

“In those moments, he under­stood the impor­tance of land, real­iz­ing that those who owned even a small plot could pro­vide a min­i­mum liveli­hood for their com­mu­ni­ties,” she added. ​“He then promised him­self that he would pur­chase some land to feed his fam­ily as soon as he could.”

This was finally pos­si­ble in 1960 when Boni’s grand­fa­ther started look­ing for a plot not far from Rome, where he lived and came across a prop­erty, which was sold to him at a very low price.

“He found out that the owner was going through finan­cial hard­ship,” Boni said. ​“At first, he first refused to buy the plot since he did not want to take advan­tage of that des­per­ate sit­u­a­tion, but the guy insisted, say­ing that it would have been worse for him not to sell it.”

“My grand­fa­ther accepted, but on the con­di­tion that he could pay the fair price for the land, there­fore a higher amount than had been requested,” she added.

That ges­ture of com­pas­sion was just the first step in a beau­ti­ful jour­ney that has led Traldi to become one of the world’s best olive oil pro­duc­ers.

“Before I got into the olive oil sec­tor, I used to do another kind of job,” Boni said. ​“I spent a lot of time in the office, and when I came to the farm to unwind on the week­ends, I real­ized how good I felt.”

“I felt free and drew energy from these plants, with the beau­ti­ful moments spent with my grand­fa­ther in my heart,” she added. ​“When I was a kid, we would walk in the olive grove and he would say: ​‘These trees are your future.’”

Then, Boni started study­ing the project’s fea­si­bil­ity, from the label and type of bot­tle she would use to the design and busi­ness goals. What became imme­di­ately appar­ent was that she needed to pro­duce high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil, which enhanced the territory’s fea­tures.

“This area is not only beau­ti­ful but also located at a strate­gic point,” Boni said.

Vetralla, home of Traldi farm, is nes­tled in a cul­tur­ally-rich and nat­u­rally beau­ti­ful area. It is home to the cities of Tarquinia and Viterbo, with its ther­mal baths, the charm­ing vil­lage of Civita di Bagnoregio and Lake Vico, all while remain­ing within easy reach of Rome’s air­ports.

Hence, the idea to ded­i­cate a part of the farm to hos­pi­tal­ity.

“My mother decided to cre­ate a cozy accom­mo­da­tion with a spa,” Boni said. ​“It is ideal for those who want to prac­tice respon­si­ble tourism and to stay in con­tact with nature.”

Located between two olive groves, the core struc­ture was built with the utmost respect for the envi­ron­ment, keep­ing the orig­i­nal masonry of the farm­house. However, it was redesigned with cut­ting-edge archi­tec­tural and tech­no­log­i­cal solu­tions.

Refurbished with antibac­te­r­ial mate­ri­als in the inte­rior and pho­to­cat­alytic ones on the out­side, heat­ing is guar­an­teed by a bio­mass boiler fueled with olive pits.

“This allows us to reuse the olive mill byprod­ucts,” Boni said, empha­siz­ing that the company’s goal is to work sus­tain­ably.

“We man­age our orchard with the low­est envi­ron­men­tal impact,” she said. ​“We respect the bal­ance of soil and plants. In this sense, I believe that the prun­ing sys­tem also plays a role. Therefore, our olive trees are grown accord­ing to the poly­conic vase sys­tem, which respects the phys­i­ol­ogy of the plant.”

The old­est parts of the orchard include cen­turies-old trees, which retain the orig­i­nal exten­sive plant­ing pat­tern.

“In the past, vines had been planted between the rows of olive trees,” Boni said. ​“We decided to keep that plant­ing lay­out, while a more ratio­nal­ized set-up was applied to plants that were recently added, a few hectares of Maurino and Itrana, and also some Coratina and Nocellara del Belice, with the idea to try out new aro­mas and fla­vors.”

Each har­vest sea­son, the fruits are crushed in the best mills of the area, which, due to their lat­est-gen­er­a­tion tech­nolo­gies, meet the company’s high stan­dards.

“We have man­aged to main­tain the best qual­ity even dur­ing the most chal­leng­ing sea­sons thanks to a great team of pro­fes­sion­als,” Boni said. ​“Now, my goal is to estab­lish our own olive mill within a cou­ple of years, while expand­ing the pro­duc­tion. It is true: these trees are the future, and now it is even brighter.”