REBECCO FARM
The holiday farm house was inaugurated on Saturday 17 October 2020. “In the three weekends when it was open, before the new lockdown imposed because of the Covid-19 emergency, it was always fully booked. The place is really beautiful: you can sit in the garden overlooking the vegetable garden and the orchard, and the interiors are really pretty. The bar counter and the cedar tables were made by my father, while the wrought iron items are the work of the husband of one of my elder sisters, who is a blacksmith” explains Matteo.
For him, working in the hospitality sector is an interesting challenge. “I prefer working with people to staying in my comfort zone. I asked a friend of mine to help me run the bar. He is in the business and had been unemployed since the spring lockdown. He supports me in the management and is teaching me many things. My sister’s daughter, who is 21, is also working with him. I took a course for farm managers organised by Coldiretti (the Italian national confederation of independent farmers) and then my niece and I will also attend an “educational farm” training so that we can host school groups and run a camping site. For me it is essential to be able to explain what we do, and my niece is very good with children”.
The space devoted to educational activities is outdoors. For the time being, it is being used to welcome the holiday farm’s clients, whom Matteo, for the moment, has chosen to offer only cold food, with top-quality cocktails and appetizers made with products from the local supply chain. Cold cuts and fresh and seasoned cheeses are selected by local businesses, while beer is the one brewed by Birrificio artigianale Curtense, which is located a few kilometres away from Rebecco Farm, in Bovegno (Brescia), and manages BeerStrò Curtense.
BeerStrò Curtense
After years of experience operating as a brewery in Franciacorta, Birrificio Curtense has opened a sales point in Alta Valle Trompia, inside the former barracks of the State Forestry Corps. The BeerStrò, however, is not simply a shop selling beer, nor a pub, and not even a small restaurant: in the framework of the AttivAree programme, the existing building was transformed into a sales point for local products and a plastic-free distributor of products sold in bulk. Just like Rebecco Farm, the bistro also works in synergy with other businesses taking part in the “Valli Resilienti” project: in particular, it is located along the Val Trompia cycle route, part of an extensive Greenway, system, and also takes part in the Linfa project, a community cooperative set up to distribute the products of local businesses and basic necessities throughout the valley. “Last summer, a lot of cyclists stopped over at Rebecco Farm” Matteo Turrini told us. “During the lockdown period, conversely, Linfa was crucial for us small producers involved in the network.”
