In 2015, Elisabetta took part in ReStartApp and it was from that moment that the adventure of Essenziale Come Natura began. She defines it as her life project, focusing on bees, the welfare of the beehive, and raising awareness on the importance of environmental quality, through organic beekeeping and honey production. “I studied international cooperation and then did some volunteering in international projects and worked as a semi-independent contractor. I did my Bachelor’s dissertation on the topic of reproductive health among the indigenous people of Chiapas, in Mexico, while my Master’s dissertation was on the Middle East, involving research in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Once I reached the age of thirty, however, I got tired of waiting for a proper contract and decided to enroll on a course to become a beekeeper”.

For a year, every weekend, Elisabetta studied bees. The first semester of the course looked at the theory (the biology of bees, bloom periods), while the following period focused on practice in the apiary. “We put our first beehives in Cori, in the province of Latina, on the land of a friend of my husband’s. We had also bought an olive grove, because of a highly-regarded local variety: the Itrana. The project I submitted during the course run by Fondazione Edoardo Garrone also included the production of extra virgin olive oil, but in the end that particular initiative didn’t take off. We kept the land, but we only produce oil for our family needs”.

Essenziale Come Natura and its beehives came to Gagliano Aterno in 2019. In the meantime, Lara was born. “Now that my daughter has reached some level of independence, I can devote myself to beekeeping and to all the projects I plan to create around it, including in terms of hospitality”.