A Surprising Start to the New Year

The new year began with a surprise.

On one of the first days, snow suddenly covered the fields and forests. For an entire morning, the landscape—which here usually remains green and lively even in winter—was wrapped in a white blanket. Paths, trees, and olive groves appeared familiar yet transformed, as if a quiet winter stillness had briefly settled over everything.

Days like this are rare here. All the greater was the surprise that morning, when the snow laid the landscape gently beneath a white cover. This beautiful natural spectacle lasted until the early afternoon. The hills lay calm, sounds seemed muffled, and the familiar movement of the landscape appeared slowed for a moment. Only later did the sun break through again. The snow gradually retreated, revealing once more the familiar view of hills and olive groves bathed in the soft winter light.

With the snow’s disappearance, movement returned to the landscape.

It was one of those days that shows how quickly everything can change here—and how naturally the landscape finds its way back to its own rhythm.

And so the year began with this special morning. We look ahead with anticipation to the coming months at the Podere—to the end of the winter rest, to the gradual awakening of the landscape, and to welcoming our guests here once again this year.