Integrating in a small community with less than 800 residents wasn’t easy, says Alice: “To many of them you are and will always be the city dweller that comes and plays being a farmer. If you are a woman and you happen to have a degree, things are even worse. When we first sowed the chickpeas, in a plot of land we rented very close to the road, the few local residents driving by would stop and ask what we were doing. Our neighbours made fun of us because, in their opinion, the soil was not suitable for that culture. Only after the – very successful – harvest did they start to take an interest in our activity, and to ask us about it. We faced the same scepticism when we first sowed wheat. Today, instead, there is a waiting list to join our supply chain. This year in particular, when, at the end of March, we were finishing sowing the lentils using our self-produced seeds, a neighbour – who has always been a farmer – asked us for the seeds. This means they have finally recognised us as farmers and we can therefore be treated as equals” explains Alice.

Although they have chosen to live in Rocca Sinibalda, to Alice and Federico the city remains a place to constantly be in touch with. After living in Viterbo, they lived some time in Rome, where they created an Ethical Purchasing Group, which was later to become the first they sold their products to. Today, the Group includes about thirty families.

It is just from the cities, mainly from Rome, that groups of tourists reach Rocca Sinibalda. Federico – who in the meantime has become an environmental tour guide – then leads them in the discovery of this area. During the summer season, Colle Berardino organises tasting sessions and sales open to groups.

Another kind of visitors often reaching Rocca Sinibalda from the cities are pilgrims, who walk The Way of St. Benedict. At Alice Liguori’s farm they can always find some rooms offering simple, rural-style accommodation. «Pilgrims usually get here around three or four in the afternoon. We offer them some fruit juice or some syrup, then we have dinner and, the next morning, breakfast together. It is a wonderful time, when we can hang out with people we have never met before, but with whom there is a natural feeling, and a spontaneous sense of sharing».